Pump-driven opto-magnetic properties in semiconducting transition-metal dichalcogenides: an analytical model

TL;DR

This paper presents an analytical model explaining the emergence of Faraday and Kerr optical rotations in single-layer transition-metal dichalcogenides, highlighting their energy-dependent features and spin-related dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a compact analytical framework to describe optical rotation phenomena and their time evolution in semiconducting transition-metal dichalcogenides.

Findings

Identification of optical features at different energies showing optical rotation

Analytical description of time-dependent intensities due to spin processes

Insight into spin-conserving and spin-flip contributions to optical properties

Abstract

Single-layer transition-metal dichalcogenides provide an unique intrinsic entanglement between the spin/valley/orbital degrees of freedom and the polarization of scattered photons. This scenario gives rise to the well-assessed optical dichroism observed by using both steady and time-resolved probes. In this paper we provide a compact analytical modelling of the onset of a finite Faraday/Kerr optical rotation upon shining with a circularly polarized light. We identify different optical features displaying optical rotation at different characteristic energies, and we describe in an analytical framework the time-dependence of their intensities as a consequence of the main spin-conserving and spin-flip processes.