The coupled spin and valley degrees of freedom in transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are considered a promising platform for information processing. Here, we use a TMD heterostructure MoS2-MoSe2 to study optical pumping of spin/valley polarized carriers across the interface and to elucidate the mechanisms governing their subsequent relaxation. By applying time-resolved Kerr and reflectivity spectroscopies, we find that the photoexcited carriers conserve their spin for both tunneling directions across the interface. Following this, we measure dramatically different spin/valley depolarization rates for electrons and holes, ∼30 and <1 ns-1, respectively, and show that this difference relates to the disparity in the spin-orbit splitting in conduction and valence bands of TMDs. Our work provides insights into the spin/valley dynamics of photoexcited carriers unaffected by complex excitonic processes and establishes TMD heterostructures as generators of spin currents in spin/valleytronic devices.
Keywords: 2-D semiconductor heterostructures; Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs); opto-spintronics; spin/valley dynamics; time-resolved Kerr rotation.