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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Staggered pseudo magnetic field in twisted transition metal dichalcogenides: Physical origin and experimental consequences

Jie Wang1, Jiawei Zang2, Jennifer Cano1,3, and Andrew J. Millis1,2

  • 1Center for Computational Quantum Physics, Flatiron Institute, 162 5th Avenue, New York, New York 10010, USA
  • 2Department of Physics, Columbia University, 538 West 120th Street, New York, New York 10027, USA
  • 3Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11974, USA

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Phys. Rev. Research 5, L012005 – Published 17 January, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.5.L012005

Abstract

Strong magnetic fields profoundly affect the quantum physics of charged particles, as seen for example by the integer and fractionally quantized Hall effects, and the fractal “Hofstadter butterfly” spectrum of electrons in the presence of a periodic potential and a magnetic field. Intrinsic physics can lead to effects equivalent to those produced by an externally applied magnetic field. Examples include the “staggered flux” phases emerging in some theories of quantum spin liquids and the Chern insulator behavior of twisted bilayer graphene when valley symmetry is broken. In this Letter we show that when two layers of the transition metal dichalcogenide material WSe2 are stacked at a small relative twist angle to form a moiré bilayer, the resulting low-energy physics can be understood in terms of electrons moving in a strong and tunable staggered flux. We predict experimental consequences including sign reversals of the Hall coefficient on application of an interlayer potential and spin currents appearing at the sample edges and interfaces.

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Phys. Rev. Research 5, L012005– Published 17 January, 2023
  • Received 13 December 2021
  • Accepted 3 October 2022
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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