Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides offer the possibility of optical control of the valley degree of freedom. In order to asses the potential of these materials in applications, detailed knowledge of the valley dynamics is essential. In this w
ork, we apply low temperature time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) measurements to investigate exciton valley relaxation dynamics and, in particular, its behavior under strong excitation. At the lowest excitation powers the inter valley scattering time is $simeq 50$ ps, but shortens by more than a factor of two at the highest powers. We attribute this acceleration to either heating of the exciton system or the presence of a dense exciton gas, which could influence the exciton valley properties. Furthermore, we analyze the PL dynamics of excitons and trions. We find that the PL decays for all peaks are bi-exponential and approximately independent of the excitation power. We attribute the short decay to radiative recombination and escape to a reservoir of dark states. The long decay is ascribed to a transfer of excitons back from the reservoir. For the first time, we evaluate the exciton PL decay time of $simeq$ 10 ps. The latter process is valley-conserving and occurs on a timescale of $simeq$ 50 ps.
Optical spectroscopy in high magnetic fields $Bleq65$ T is used to reveal the very different nature of carriers in monolayer and bulk transition metal dichalcogenides. In monolayer WSe$_{2}$, the exciton emission shifts linearly with the magnetic fie
ld and exhibits a splitting which originates from the magnetic field induced valley splitting. The monolayer data can be described using a single particle picture with a Dirac-like Hamiltonian for massive Dirac fermions, with an additional term to phenomenologically include the valley splitting. In contrast, in bulk WSe$_{2}$ where the inversion symmetry is restored, transmission measurements show a distinctly excitonic behavior with absorption to the 1s and 2s states. Magnetic field induces a spin splitting together with a small diamagnetic shift and cyclotron like behavior at high fields, which is best described within the hydrogen model.
Resonant Raman spectra of single layer WS$_{2}$ flakes are presented. A second order Raman peak (2LA) appears under resonant excitation with a separation from the E$^{1}_{2g}$ mode of only $4$cm$^{-1}$. Depending on the intensity ratio and the respec
tive line widths of these two peaks, any analysis which neglects the presence of the 2LA mode can lead to an inaccurate estimation of the position of the E$^{1}_{2g}$ mode, leading to a potentially incorrect assignment for the number of layers. Our results show that the intensity of the 2LA mode strongly depends on the angle between the linear polarization of the excitation and detection, a parameter which is neglected in many Raman studies.
Achieving significant doping in GaAs/AlAs core/shell nanowires (NWs) is of considerable technological importance but remains a challenge due to the amphoteric behavior of the dopant atoms. Here we show that placing a narrow GaAs quantum well in the A
lAs shell effectively getters residual carbon acceptors leading to an emph{unintentional} p-type doping. Magneto-optical studies of such a GaAs/AlAs core multi-shell NW reveal quantum confined emission. Theoretical calculations of NW electronic structure confirm quantum confinement of carriers at the core/shell interface due to the presence of ionized carbon acceptors in the 1~nm GaAs layer in the shell. Micro-photoluminescence in high magnetic field shows a clear signature of avoided crossings of the $n=0$ Landau level emission line with the $n=2$ Landau level TO phonon replica. The coupling is caused by the resonant hole-phonon interaction, which points to a large 2D hole density in the structure.
Magneto-transmission measurements in magnetic fields in the range B=20-60T have been performed to probe the H and K-point Landau level transitions in natural graphite. At the H-point, two series of transitions, whose energy evolves as $sqrt{B}$ are o
bserved. A reduced Slonczewski, Weiss and McClure (SWM) model with only two parameters to describe the intra-layer (gamma0) and inter-layer (gamma1) coupling correctly describes all observed transitions. Polarization resolved measurements confirm that the observed apparent splitting of the H-point transitions at high magnetic field cannot be attributed to an asymmetry of the Dirac cone.
Optical absorption measurements are used to probe the spin polarization in the integer and fractional quantum Hall effect regimes. The system is fully spin polarized only at filling factor $ u=1$ and at very low temperatures($sim40$ mK). A small chan
ge in filling factor ($delta uapproxpm0.01$) leads to a significant depolarization. This suggests that the itinerant quantum Hall ferromagnet at $ u=1$ is surprisingly fragile against increasing temperature, or against small changes in filling factor.
We have investigated the absorption spectrum of multilayer graphene in high magnetic fields. The low energy part of the spectrum of electrons in graphene is well described by the relativistic Dirac equation with a linear dispersion relation. However,
at higher energies (>500 meV) a deviation from the ideal behavior of Dirac particles is observed. At an energy of 1.25 eV, the deviation from linearity is 40 meV. This result is in good agreement with the theoretical model, which includes trigonal warping of the Fermi surface and higher-order band corrections. Polarization-resolved measurements show no observable electron-hole asymmetry.
