Published July 22, 2024 | Version v1
Journal article

Valley-driven orbital polarization induced by a magnetic impurity in monolayer NbSe2

  • 1. Condensed Matter Theory and Computational Lab, Department of Physics, IIT Madras, Chennai 600036, India
  • 2. Center for Atomistic Modeling and Materials Design, IIT Madras, Chennai 600036, India
  • 3. Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri 65211, USA

Description

Due to the coupled spin-valley physics, monolayer 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) show many unusual electronic and transport properties. Here, we show that a magnetic impurity in the metallic TMDs such as the 2HNbSe2 induces a large orbital polarization in its neighborhood with a Friedel type oscillation, in addition to the usual spin polarization. We study the orbital polarization, hitherto unexplored for any impurity system, using the impurity Green's function approach as well as tight-binding and density functional methods. Concrete results are presented for the Mn substitutional impurity in NbSe2 from density-functional calculations. The orbital polarization here is due to the orbital moment imbalance between the K/K valleys, which is driven by the impurity-induced spin imbalance. Our work demonstrates the Friedel oscillation for the first time in the orbital channel. Our results should be readily accessible for experimental study using techniques such as the spin polarized scanning tunneling microscopy.

Additional details

Identifiers

DOI
10.1103/PhysRevB.110.L041119;
Crossref Funder ID
10.13039/501100001409; 10.13039/100006222;

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physical Review B
Journal Volume
110
Journal Issue
4
Journal Page Range
6 pgs.
ISSN
1550-235X

Optional Information

Copyright
©2024 American Physical Society
Contract/Grant/Project number
CRG/2020/004330
Notes
These authors contributed equally to this work.; Contact Email: Contact author: nandab@iitm.ac.in; Contact Email: Contact author: SatpathyS@missouri.edu; Record automatically processed
Funding organization
Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India; United States - India Educational Foundation