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Many-body Rashba spin-orbit interaction and exciton spin relaxation in atomically thin semiconductor structures

Henry Mittenzwey1,2,* and Andreas Knorr2

  • *Contact author: henry.mittenzwey@uni-giessen.de
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Phys. Rev. B 113, 125421 – Published 16 March, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/xxph-r89s

Abstract

We propose a pair spin-orbit interaction mechanism by establishing a mesoscopic many-particle Rashba Hamiltonian. In lowest order, this Hamiltonian self-consistently describes exciton spin relaxation in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDC) due to local electric fields caused by spatial asymmetries in the dielectric environment. For a monolayer MoSe2 on a sapphire or SiO2 substrate above 77 K showing a bright-dark splitting in the meV range, the local electric field causes fast intravalley spin relaxation on a sub-picosecond time scale, whereas it is negligible for other TMDCs with larger bright-dark splitting.

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Phys. Rev. B 113, 125421– Published 16 March, 2026
  • Received 16 September 2025
  • Revised 17 February 2026
  • Accepted 20 February 2026
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