Valleytronic properties of monolayer WSe2 in external magnetic field

Valley pseudospin, a novel quantum degree of freedom, is expected to show valley Zeeman effect in analogy to real spin in magnetic field B. By performing first-principles calculations, we studied the magnetic effect on valley pseudospin in monolayer WSe2. With the application of B, the time reversal symmetry is broken. Our calculation shows that the valley energy degeneracy is broken and the valley Zeeman splitting varies linearly with B, agreeing well with the experiments. It is found that the valley Zeeman splitting is contributed mainly from the atomic orbital magnetic moment of W atom, but the valley contribution is still appreciable. The Berry curvatures of the two inequivalent valleys of monolayer WSe2 are opposite and their change induced by B also depends linearly on B. The calculated circular dichroism and dielectric function reveal that the optical valley-dependent selection rule is preserved and the original single peak in polarization-resolved photoluminescence spectrum will be split into two peaks after the application of B. Our studies demonstrate the possibility of magnetic manipulation of the valley pseudospin.