Magnon-exciton proximity coupling at a van der Waals heterointerface

Spin and photonic systems are at the heart of modern information devices and emerging quantum technologies. An interplay between electron-hole pairs (excitons) in semiconductors and collective spin excitations (magnons) in magnetic crystals would bridge these heterogeneous systems, leveraging their individual assets in novel interconnected devices. We report the magnon-exciton coupling at the interface between a magnetic thin film and an atomically-thin semiconductor. Our approach allies the exceptionally long-lived magnons hosted in a film of yttrium iron garnet (YIG) to strongly-bound excitons in a flake of a transition metal dichalcogenide, MoSe₂. The magnons induce on the excitons a dynamical valley Zeeman effect ruled by interfacial exchange interactions. This nascent class of hybrid system suggests new opportunities for information transduction between microwave and optical regions.