Weak localization in boron nitride encapsulated bilayer MoS₂

We present measurements of weak localization on hexagonal boron nitride encapsulated bilayer MoS$_2$. From the analysis we obtain information regarding the phase-coherence and the spin diffusion of the electrons. We find that the encapsulation with boron nitride provides higher mobilities in the samples, and the phase-coherence shows improvement, while the spin relaxation does not exhibit any significant enhancement compared to non-encapsulated MoS$_2$. The spin relaxation time is in the order of a few picoseconds, indicating a fast intravalley spin-flip rate. Lastly, the spin-flip rate is found to be independent from electron density in the current range, which can be explained through counteracting spin-flip scattering processes based on electron-electron Coulomb scattering and extrinsic Bychkov-Rashba spin-orbit coupling.