• Accepted Paper

Spin-valley relaxation of Rydberg excitons

V. Jindal, K. Mourzidis, M. Semina, D. Lagarde, A. Balocchi, P. Renucci, T. Boulier, T. Taniguchi, K. Watanabe, M. Glazov, and X. Marie

Phys. Rev. Lett. - Accepted 21 October, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/ddrf-yxd4

Abstract

Rydberg excitons, characterized by large spatial extension and reduced electron-hole overlap, must have a spin-valley dynamics different from that of ground state excitons. Here we report a direct measurement of spin relaxation of Rydberg excitons in high-quality WSe₂ monolayer using continuous-wave and time-resolved optical orientation experiments. Excited excitonic states exhibit exceptionally large photoluminescence circular polarization, approaching 90% for the 3s state. Time-resolved measurements reveal a strong increase of the spin relaxation time with the principal quantum number, from ~2 ps for the 1s exciton to values larger than ~75 ps for the 3s exciton. A microscopic model based on electron-hole exchange-driven spin relaxation quantitatively reproduces the observed trend, demonstrating that Rydberg excitons enable tunable spin–valley dynamics in two-dimensional semiconductors.

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