• Accepted Paper

Hidden valley dynamics behind vanishing circular polarization in moiré excitons

Yuto Urano, Lata Chouhan, Nurul Fariha Ahmad, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Daichi Kozawa, and Ryo Kitaura

Phys. Rev. B - Accepted 8 October, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/jtzc-x4cq

Abstract

Optically addressable valley degrees of freedom in transition-metal dichalcogenide heterostructures provide a powerful platform for valleytronic and quantum-optical functionalities. In moiré superlattices, interlayer excitons inherit valley-contrasting optical selection rules while acquiring long lifetimes, electric dipoles, and site-dependent optical responses. However, because conventional measurements typically probe time-integrated valley polarization, the dynamical origin of vanishing polarization has remained elusive. Here, we show that a nearly zero steady state valley polarization in electrically tunable moiré excitons does not necessarily indicate fast valley relaxation. Helicity-resolved time-resolved photoluminescence reveals a temporal crossing between co- and cross-circularly polarized emission, indicating that helicity-opposite dynamical components coexist and compensate after time integration. A minimal two-channel model, representing A-like and B-like moiré emission channels with opposite optical selection rules and distinct effective decay/depolarization rates, reproduces the observed helicity crossing without invoking a single rapid valley relaxation process. Furthermore, two-dimensional gate-field maps show that the crossing time evolves systematically with electrostatic tuning, demonstrating that the hidden valley dynamics are electrically controllable. These results show that time-integrated circular polarization can give a false-negative indication of valley polarization in multichannel valley emitters.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation

If the author has provided any supplemental materials with this article they will be available upon publication of the version of record.

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation