Ultrafast Spin Injection in Graphene via Dynamical Carrier Filtering at Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Interfaces

Abstract: We report a real-time first-principles study of ultrafast spin injection in a WSe$_2$-graphene heterobilayer under circularly polarized laser irradiation, using time-dependent density functional theory. Contrary to conventional expectations, spin transfer into graphene is not a passive process but is actively driven by spin-selective carrier filtering at the interface. Spin-polarized carriers generated in the WSe$_2$ layer induce a preferential migration of opposite-spin carriers from graphene, which results in net spin magnetization in graphene. This process is governed by interlayer band offsets, density-of-state asymmetry, and Pauli blocking. These findings indicate a microscopic mechanism of spin injection in non-magnetic systems and identify a guiding principle for the design of ultrafast opto-spintronic functionalities in van der Waals heterostructures.