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Optical switching of a moiré Chern ferromagnet

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Schematic band structure showing (a) the interaction-induced FM order picks up one of two spin-valley-locked moiré Chern bands at ν = −1, which can be dressed by CPL helicity; (b) the absorption of a σ- photon of resonant energy excites an electron-hole pair in the K′ valley. The dashed frame illustrates the interaction between the pumped electron-hole pair in K′ valley and the resident holes in K valley. The dispersive conduction band minima at K/K′ valleys exhibit weak spin-splitting and allow fast inter-valley electron scattering, while the inter-valley hole transfer between moiré Chern bands is prohibited by the opposite spin / Chern numbers and large energy splitting as shown in (c). As a result, the optically injected spin-polarized holes form a long-lived valley polarization in the K′-valley. (d) The subsequent recombination of electron and spin-up hole in the K valley emits a σ+ photon, leading to the reduced spin-up hole density in the K valley, as illustrated in (e). The process in (b)-(e) repeats for multiple times during the continuous-wave pumping. Once this optically generated spin / valley imbalance exceeds a critical density, the effective Zeeman-like field overcomes the existing valley splitting and reverses the FM order to the spin-down state as shown in (f).