The technical term for a local energy optimum or minimum in the bands is called a “valley,” and the field that studies and exploits how electrons in the material switch from one valley to the other is created “valleytronics. In the past decade, the main goal of valleytronics has actually been to reach the control of the valley population (likewise known as valley polarization) in materials. At the same time, the approach can be used to get a more detailed characterization of crystals and 2D materials.Valley polarization in bulk products is possibleThe experience started with the speculative group led by ICREA Prof. at ICFO Jens Biegert who initially desired to experimentally produce valley polarization using their particular technique in 2D products, following the lines of what had actually been theoretically proved in a previous theoretical paper by Álvaro Jiménez, Rui Silva and Misha Ivanov. To set up the experiment, the initial measurement was tried on bulk MoS2 (a bulk material is made of many monolayers stacked together) with the unexpected outcome that they saw the signature of valley polarization.” This symmetry-matched strong field breaks the space and time balance within the material, and, more notably, the resulting configuration depends on the orientation of the trefoil field with regard to the product.
The technical term for a regional energy maximum or minimum in the bands is called a “valley,” and the field that studies and exploits how electrons in the material switch from one valley to the other is coined “valleytronics. At the very same time, the method can be used to acquire a more detailed characterization of crystals and 2D materials.Valley polarization in bulk materials is possibleThe adventure started with the speculative group led by ICREA Prof. at ICFO Jens Biegert who initially wanted to experimentally produce valley polarization using their particular method in 2D products, following the lines of what had been in theory proved in a previous theoretical paper by Álvaro Jiménez, Rui Silva and Misha Ivanov.” This symmetry-matched strong field breaks the space and time symmetry within the material, and, more notably, the resulting configuration depends on the orientation of the trefoil field with regard to the product.
