Transport Theory of Monolayer Transition-Metal Dichalcogenides through Symmetry

Yang Song, Hanan Dery

Published 2013-02-14, updated 2013-09-27Version 2

We present a theory that elucidates the major momentum and spin relaxation processes for electrons, holes and hot excitons in monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides. We expand on spin flips induced by flexural phonons and show that the spin relaxation is ultrafast for electrons in free-standing membranes while being mitigated in supported membranes. This behavior due to interaction with flexural phonons is universal in two-dimensional membranes that respect mirror symmetry and it leads to a counterintuitive inverse relation between mobility and spin relaxation.