Skip to main content

Electrical control of the valley Hall effect in bilayer MoS 2 transistors

Cornell Affiliated Author(s)

Author

J. Lee
K.F. Mak
J. Shan

Abstract

The valley degree of freedom of electrons in solids has been proposed as a new type of information carrier, beyond the electron charge and spin. The potential of two-dimensional semiconductor transition metal dichalcogenides in valley-based electronic and optoelectronic applications has recently been illustrated through experimental demonstrations of the optical orientation of the valley polarization and of the valley Hall effect in monolayer MoS 2. However, the valley Hall conductivity in monolayer MoS 2, a non-centrosymmetric crystal, cannot be easily tuned, which presents a challenge for the development of valley-based applications. Here, we show that the valley Hall effect in bilayer MoS 2 transistors can be controlled with a gate voltage. The gate applies an electric field perpendicular to the plane of the material, breaking the inversion symmetry present in bilayer MoS 2. The valley polarization induced by the longitudinal electrical current was imaged with Kerr rotation microscopy. The polarization was found to be present only near the edges of the device channel with opposite sign for the two edges, and was out-of-plane and strongly dependent on the gate voltage. Our observations are consistent with symmetry-dependent Berry curvature and valley Hall conductivity in bilayer MoS 2. © 2016 Macmillan Publishers Limited.

Date Published

Journal

Nature Nanotechnology

Volume

11

Issue

5

Number of Pages

421-425,

URL

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84955577546&doi=10.1038%2fnnano.2015.337&partnerID=40&md5=c858954a1754aa512a5350ec135a2500

DOI

10.1038/nnano.2015.337

Group (Lab)

Jie Shan Group
Kin Fai Mak Group

Funding Source

1410407
1420451
DMR-1410407
FA9550-14-1-0268
DESC0013883

Download citation