Ultranarrow electroluminescence from magnetic excitons in the van der Waals antiferromagnetic semiconductor NiPS₃.

Abstract

Electrically driven light emission from two-dimensional (2D) semiconducting materials has enabled numerous optoelectronic technologies, including light-emitting diodes, solid-state lasers, and single-photon sources for quantum communication. Here we report ultranarrow electroluminescence from the magnetic excitonic state of the van der Waals antiferromagnetic semiconductor NiPS₃. This electroluminescence is enabled by the fabrication of gate-tunable NiPS₃ devices that remain electrically conductive below the antiferromagnetic ordering temperature of 155 K, ultimately allowing field-effect mobilities of 1.3 cm²V^-1 s^-1 and 4.5 cm²V^-1 s^-1 to be directly measured at room temperature and 7 K, respectively. By applying a high-frequency square wave voltage to the gate electrode of the resulting field-effect transistors, electroluminescence is capacitively induced from the magnetic excitons of NiPS₃. Due to the coupling of these excitons with the underlying NiPS₃ antiferromagnetic order, the electroluminescence has an ultranarrow linewidth of 1 meV and a high degree of linear polarization (ρ = 0.78). In addition to facilitating fundamental studies of the coupling between spin states and excitons in van der Waals magnetic semiconductors, this work will accelerate the development of emerging 2D opto-spintronic applications.