Electronic Raman scattering activates the investigation of d-d excitations and electron-spin coupling in 2D antiferromagnets.

The d electron plays a significant role in determining and controlling the properties of magnetic materials. However, the d electron transitions, especially d– d emission, have rarely been observed in magnetic materials due to the forbidden selection rules. Here, we report an observation of d– d emission in antiferromagnetic nickel phosphorus trisulfides (NiPS3) and its strong enhancement by stacking it with monolayer tungsten disulfide (WS2). We attribute the observation of the strong d– d emission enhancement to the charge transfer between NiPS3 and WS2 in the type-I heterostructure. The d– d emission peak splits into two peaks, D1 and D2, at low temperature below 150 K, from where an energy splitting due to the trigonal crystal field is measured as 105 meV. Moreover, we find that the d– d emissions in NiPS3 are nonpolarized lights, showing no dependence on the zigzag antiferromagnetic configuration. These results reveal rich fundamental information on the electronic and optical properties of emerging van der Waals antiferromagnetic NiPS3.