Ferroelectric brightening of spin‑forbidden dark excitons in a WSe2/hybrid-perovskite heterostructure

Ferroelectric brightening of spin‑forbidden dark excitons in a WSe2/hybrid-perovskite heterostructure

Nature Communications

10.1038/s41467-026-72143-y

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-72143-y

Xinyun Wang, Magdalena Grzeszczyk, Maxim Trushin, Ivan Verzhbitskiy, Dmitrii Litvinov, Yi Wei Ho, Yuan Chen, Zhenyue Wu, Mykola Telychko, Chuanqi Zhang, Andrés Granados del Águila, Kuan Eng Johnson Goh, Xinwei Li, Goki Eda, Shaffique Adam, Maciej Koperski, Kian Ping Loh

09 May 2026

Wang, X., Grzeszczyk, M., Trushin, M., Verzhbitskiy, I., Litvinov, D., Ho, Y. W., Chen, Y., Wu, Z., Telychko, M., Zhang, C., Granados del Aguila, A., Goh, K. E. J., Li, X., Eda, G., Adam, S., Koperski, M., & Loh, K. P. (2026). Ferroelectric brightening of spin‑forbidden dark excitons in a WSe2/hybrid-perovskite heterostructure. Nature Communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-72143-y

Abstract Long-lived dark excitons in monolayer WSe 2 present promising candidates for carrying spin and valley information, but their optical access and spin manipulation have conventionally required the use of strong external magnetic fields. Here, using a ferroelectric hybrid perovskite heterostructure, we leverage the ferroelectric proximity effect to break the WSe 2 ’s in-plane rotational symmetry and brighten the spin-forbidden dark excitons under zero magnetic field conditions. Furthermore, we show that the twist angle between the WSe 2 and perovskite crystals controls the ferroelectric coupling strength and valley-contrasting polarization. Our proposed mechanism, supported by a four-band tight-binding model, suggests that the ferroelectric proximity effect induces an asymmetric intersublattice interaction, generating an effective in-plane spin-orbit coupling (SOC) field that rotates spin/valley polarization and brightens dark excitons. Our work establishes ferroelectric proximity coupling as a symmetry-tunable, magnetic-field-free strategy for spin exciton control in two-dimensional semiconductors.

Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

This research / project is supported by the Ministry of Education (MOE), Singapore - Academic Research Fund Tier 3
Grant Reference no. : MOET32024-0001

This research / project is supported by the Ministry of Education (MOE), Singapore - Research Center of Excellence program
Grant Reference no. : EDUN C-33-18-279-V12, I-FIM

This research / project is supported by the Ministry of Education (MOE), Singapore - Academic Research Fund Tier 2
Grant Reference no. : MOE-T2EP50122-0012

This research / project is supported by the Ministry of Education (MOE), Singapore - Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Office of Naval Research Global
Grant Reference no. : FA8655-21-1-7026

This research / project is supported by the Ministry of Education (MOE), Singapore - Research Center of Excellence award
Grant Reference no. : EDUNC-33-18-279-V12

This research / project is supported by the Ministry of Education (MOE), Singapore - Academic Research Fund Tier 2
Grant Reference no. : MOE-T2EP50124-0005

This research / project is supported by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) - Delta-Q 2.0
Grant Reference no. : #21709, C230917006, C230917007

This research / project is supported by the Singapore National Research Foundation - Competitive Research Programme (CRP)
Grant Reference no. : CRP21-2018-0001

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Nature Communications. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-72143-y.

https://oar.a-star.edu.sg/communities-collections/articles/23417

2041-1723

Quantum Innovation Centre Strategic Research and Translational Thrusts

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-72143-y