We have investigated the exciton dynamics in transition metal

Optical interband transitions in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides such as WSe 2 and MoS 2 are governed by chiral selection rules. This allows efficient optical initialization of an electron in a specific K-valley in momentum space. Here we probe the valley dynamics in monolayer WSe 2 by monitoring the emission and polarization dynamics of the well separated neutral excitons (bound electron hole pairs) and charged excitons (trions) in photoluminescence. The neutral exciton photoluminescence intensity decay time is about 4ps, whereas the trion emission occurs over several tens of ps. The trion polarization dynamics shows a partial, fast initial decay within tens of ps before reaching a stable polarization of ≈ 20%, for which a typical valley polarization decay time larger than 1ns can be inferred. This is a clear signature of stable, optically initialized valley polarization.