Light-Induced Exciton Spin Hall Effect in van der Waals Heterostructures

Abstract

We propose a light-induced spin Hall effect for interlayer exciton gas in monolayer MoSe2-WSe2 van der Waals heterostructure. By applying two infrared, spatially varying laser beams coupled to the exciton internal states, a spin-dependent gauge potential on the exciton center-of-mass motion is induced. This gauge potential deflects excitons in different spin states towards opposite directions, leading to a finite spin current but vanishing mass current. In the Hall bar geometry, the spin-dependent deflection gives rise to spin-dependent chiral edge states with spin-velocity locking. The spin current and chiral edge states of the excitons can be detected by spatially resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy.