Long-lived nanosecond spin relaxation and spin coherence of electrons in monolayer MoS2 and WS2

A range of semiconductors can host both spin and valley polarizations. Optical experiments on single layers of transition metal dichalcogenides now show that inter-valley scattering can accelerate spin relaxation. The recently discovered monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) provide a fertile playground to explore new coupled spin–valley physics 1 , 2 , 3 . Although robust spin and valley degrees of freedom are inferred from polarized photoluminescence (PL) experiments 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , PL timescales are necessarily constrained by short-lived (3–100 ps) electron–hole recombination 9 , 10 . Direct probes of spin/valley polarization dynamics of resident carriers in electron (or hole)-doped TMDCs, which may persist long after recombination ceases, are at an early stage 11 , 12 , 13 . Here we directly measure the coupled spin–valley dynamics in electron-doped MoS 2 and WS 2 monolayers using optical Kerr spectroscopy, and reveal very long electron spin lifetimes, exceeding 3 ns at 5 K (two to three orders of magnitude longer than typical exciton recombination times). In contrast with conventional III–V or II–VI semiconductors, spin relaxation accelerates rapidly in small transverse magnetic fields. Supported by a model of coupled spin–valley dynamics, these results indicate a novel mechanism of itinerant electron spin dephasing in the rapidly fluctuating internal spin–orbit field in TMDCs, driven by fast inter-valley scattering. Additionally, a long-lived spin coherence is observed at lower energies, commensurate with localized states. These studies provide insight into the physics underpinning spin and valley dynamics of resident electrons in atomically thin TMDCs.