  Stacking atomic monolayers of semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides
(TMDs) has emerged as an effective way to engineer their properties. In
principle, the staggered band alignment of TMD heterostructures should result
in the formation of inter-layer excitons with long lifetimes and robust valley
polarization. However, these features have been observed simultaneously only in
MoSe$_2$/WSe$_2$ heterostructures. Here we report on the observation of long
lived inter-layer exciton emission in a MoS$_2$/MoSe$_2$/MoS$_2$ trilayer van
der Waals heterostructure. The inter-layer nature of the observed transition is
confirmed by photoluminescence spectroscopy, as well as by analyzing the
temporal, excitation power and temperature dependence of the inter-layer
emission peak. The observed complex photoluminescence dynamics suggests the
presence of quasi-degenerate momentum-direct and momentum-indirect bandgaps. We
show that circularly polarized optical pumping results in long lived valley
polarization of inter-layer exciton. Intriguingly, the inter-layer exciton
photoluminescence has helicity opposite to the excitation. Our results show
that through a careful choice of the TMDs forming the van der Waals
heterostructure it is possible to control the circular polarization of the
inter-layer exciton emission.
