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

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 cm2 V–1 s–1 and 4.5 cm2 V–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.