Intrinsic valley polarization of magnetic VSe2 monolayers.

Intrinsic valley polarization can be obtained in VSe2 monolayers with broken inversion symmetry and time reversal symmetry. First-principles investigations reveal that the magnitude of the valley splitting in magnetic VSe2 induced by spin-orbit coupling reaches as high as 78.2 meV and can be linearly tuned by biaxial strain. Besides conventional polarized light, hole doping or illumination with light of proper frequency can offer effective routes to realize valley polarization. Moreover, spin-orbit coupling in monolayer VSe2 breaks not only the valley degeneracy but also the three-fold rotational symmetry in band structure. The intrinsic and tunable valley splitting and the breaking of optical isotropy bring additional benefits to valleytronic and optoelectronic applications.