Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation

    Characterization of fractional Chern insulator quasiparticles in twisted homobilayer MoTe2

    Zhao Liu1,2,*, Bohao Li3,†, Yuhao Shi1, and Fengcheng Wu3,4,‡

    • 1Zhejiang Institute of Modern Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
    • 2Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Quantum Chips and Quantum Control, School of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
    • 3School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
    • 4Wuhan Institute of Quantum Technology, Wuhan 430206, China

    • *Contact author: zhaol@zju.edu.cn
    • †Contact author: bohaoli@whu.edu.cn
    • ‡Contact author: wufcheng@whu.edu.cn

    Phys. Rev. B 112, 245104 – Published 1 December, 2025

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/nddl-729x

    Abstract

    We provide a detailed study of Abelian quasiparticles of valley polarized fractional Chern insulators (FCIs) residing in the top valence band of twisted bilayer MoTe2 (tMoTe2) at hole filling νh=2/3. We construct a tight-binding model of delocalized quasiparticles to capture the energy dispersion of a single quasiparticle. We then localize quasiparticles by short-range delta impurity potentials. Unlike the fractional quantum Hall (FQH) counterpart in the lowest Landau level (LLL), the density profile around the localized FCI quasiparticle in tMoTe2 depends on the location of the impurity potential and loses the continuous rotation invariance. The FCI quasiparticle localized at moiré lattice center closely follows the anyon Wannier state of the tight-binding model of the mobile quasiparticle. Despite of the difference in density profiles, we find that the excess charge around the impurity potential for the νh=2/3 FCIs in tMoTe2 is still similar to that of the ν=2/3 FQH state in the LLL if an effective magnetic length on the moiré lattice is chosen as the length unit, which allows a rough estimation of the spatial extent of the FCI quasiparticle. Far away from the impurity potential, this excess charge has the tendency to reach e/3, as expected for the Laughlin quasiparticle. The braiding phase of two FCI quasiparticles in tMoTe2 also agrees with the theoretical prediction of fractional statistics. We characterize the interaction between two FCI quasiparticles and find a crossover from repulsive to attractive interaction as gate-to-sample distances decreases. Based on the nearly ideal quantum geometry of the top valence band of tMoTe2, we propose a trial wave function for localized FCI quasiparticles, which reproduces the key feature of the density profile around a quasiparticle.

    Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

    Authorization Required

    We need you to provide your credentials before accessing this content.

    References (Subscription Required)

    Outline

    Information

    Sign In to Your Journals Account

    Filter

    Filter

    Article Lookup

    Enter a citation