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Topological Kondo semimetals emulated in heterobilayer transition metal dichalcogenides

Fang Xie1,2,*, Lei Chen1,*, Yuan Fang1, and Qimiao Si1,†

  • 1Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice Center for Quantum Materials, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
  • 2Rice Academy of Fellows, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †Contact author: qmsi@rice.edu
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Phys. Rev. Research 7, 033093 – Published 25 July, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/fwbg-kdb9

Abstract

The moiré structure of AB-stacked MoTe2/WSe2 represents a natural platform to realize Kondo lattice models due to the discrepancy of the bandwidth between the individual layers. Here, we study this system at the commensurate filling of νtot=2. Our focus is on the 1+1 filling setting of νMo=νW=1, which enables a Kondo lattice description. We find a Kondo semimetal due to the sizable intraorbital hopping among the electrons in the MoTe2 layer. The Kondo-driven (emergent) flat band is naturally pinned to the Fermi energy. When combined with the inherent topology of the electronic structure, a topological Kondo semimetal phase ensues. We calculate the valley Hall response, and due to the breaking of inversion symmetry we also identify a spontaneous Hall effect. There is a Berry curvature dodecapole that leads to a fourth-order spontaneous Hall effect in the perturbative regime of the electric field that is further amplified in the nonperturbative regime. As such, the system provides a tunable setting to simulate topological Kondo semimetals. Finally, we discuss the pathways that connect the physics realized here to the Weyl-Kondo semimetals and their proximate phases,which have been advanced in recent years in topological Kondo lattice models and materials.

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Phys. Rev. Research 7, 033093– Published 25 July, 2025
  • Received 31 December 2024
  • Accepted 18 June 2025
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