Spin-orbit coupling is a fundamental mechanism that connects the spin of a charge carrier with its momentum 1 . Likewise, in the optical domain, a synthetic spin-orbit coupling is accessible, for instance, by engineering optical anisotropies in photonic materials 2 . Both, akin, yield the possibility to create devices directly harnessing spin-and polarization as information carriers 3 . Atomically thin layers of transition metal dichalcogenides provide a new material platform which promises intrinsic spin-valley Hall features both for free carriers, two-particle excitations (excitons), as well as for photons 4 . In such materials, the spin of an exciton is closely linked to the high-symmetry point in reciprocal space it emerges from (K and K' valleys) 5,6 . Here, we demonstrate, that spin, and hence valley selective propagation is accessible in an atomically thin layer of MoSe2, which is strongly coupled to a microcavity photon mode. We engineer a wire-like device, where we can clearly trace the flow, and the helicity of exciton-polaritons expanding along a channel. By exciting a coherent superposition of K and K' tagged polaritons, we observe valley selective expansion of the polariton cloud without neither any applied external magnetic fields nor coherent Rayleigh scattering. Unlike the valley Hall effect for TMDC excitons 7 , the observed optical valley Hall effect (OVHE) 8 strikingly occurs on a macroscopic scale, and clearly reveals the potential for applications in spin-valley locked photonic devices.Spin-valley locking is a striking feature of free charge carriers and excitons emerging in monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) 6,9 . It originates form the strong spin-orbit interaction, which arises from the heavy transition metals in TMDCs and the broken inversion symmetry of the crystal lattice. This leads to inverted spin orientations at opposite K points at the corners of the hexagonal Brillouin zone, for both conduction band electrons and valence band holes. As a result, the K and K' valleys can be selectively addressed by σ + and σcircular polarized light 10,11 , which is referred to as valley-polarization. Likewise, coherent superpositions of both valleys can be excited by linear polarized light, which is referred to as valley coherence. The outstanding control of the valley pseudospin has attracted great interest in exploiting this degree of freedom to encode and process information by manipulating free charge carriers 12 and excitons 7,13,14 , which has led to the emerging field of valleytronics 4 . However, exciton spin-valley applications are strongly limited by the depolarization mechanisms due to the strong Coulomb exchange interaction of electrons and holes, as well as by the limited exciton diffusion and propagation lengths.
We have experimentally observed an eddy current of exciton polaritons arising in a cylindrical GaAs/AlGaAs pillar microcavity under the nonresonant optical pumping. The polariton current manifests itself in a MachZehnder interferometry image as a characteristic spiral that occurs due to the interference of the light emitted by an exciton-polariton condensate with a reference spherical wave. We have experimentally observed the condensates with the topological charges m = +1, m = −1, and m = −2. The interference pattern corresponding to the m = −2 current represents the twin spiral emerging from the center of the micropillar. The switching between the current modes with different topological charges is achieved by a weak displacement of the pump spot.
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