Melting of generalized Wigner crystals in transition metal dichalcogenide heterobilayer Moiré systems

Abstract

Moiré superlattice systems such as transition metal dichalcogenide heterobilayers have garnered significant recent interest due to their promising utility as tunable solid state simulators. Recent experiments on a WSe${}_2$/WS${}_2$ heterobilayer detected incompressible charge ordered states that one can view as generalized Wigner crystals. The tunability of the hetero-TMD Moiré system presents an opportunity to study the rich set of possible phases upon melting these charge-ordered states. Here we use Monte Carlo simulations to study these intermediate phases in between incompressible charge-ordered states in the strong coupling limit. We find two distinct stripe solid states to be each preceded by distinct types of nematic states. In particular, we discover microscopic mechanisms that stabilize each of the nematic states, whose order parameter transforms as the two-dimensional $E$ representation of the Moiré lattice point group. Our results provide a testable experimental prediction of where both types of nematic occur, and elucidate the microscopic mechanism driving their formation.

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Cited by in corpus (22)

• Maximally Localized Wannier Orbitals, Interaction Models and Fractional Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in Twisted Bilayer MoTe2
• Multiple Chern bands in twisted MoTe${}_2$ and possible non-Abelian states
• Magnetism and Quantum Melting in Moiré-Material Wigner Crystals
• Hofstadter states and reentrant charge order in a semiconductor moiré lattice
• Nonlinear Dynamics, Avalanches and Noise for Driven Wigner Crystals
• Quantum Melting of Generalized Wigner Crystals in Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Moiré Systems
• Doping a Wigner-Mott insulator: Exotic charge orders in transition-metal dichalcogenide moiré heterobilayers
• Competing Generalized Wigner Crystal States in Moiré Heterostructures
• Topological quantum phase transitions driven by a displacement field in the twisted MoTe2 bilayers
• Strain-tuned quantum criticality in electronic Potts-nematic systems
• Time-Domain Signatures of Distinct Correlated Insulators in a Moiré Superlattice
• Collective Dynamics and Defect Generation for Wigner Crystal Ratchets
• Noise and Thermal Depinning of Wigner Crystals
• Quantum melting of generalized electron crystal in twisted bilayer MoSe2
• Continuous Wigner-Mott transition at $\nu =1/5$
• Quasi-boson approximation yields accurate correlation energy in the 2D electron gas
• Particle-Hole Asymmetry and Pinball Liquid in a Triangular-Lattice Extended Hubbard Model within Mean-Field Approximation
• Origin and stability of generalized Wigner crystallinity in triangular moiré systems
• Importance of electron-phonon coupling near the electron-liquid to Wigner-crystal transition in two-dimensional atomically thin materials
• Magnetism from multiparticle ring exchange in moiré Wigner crystals
• Charge-Ordered States and the Phase Diagram of the Extended Hubbard Model on the Bethe lattice
• Magnetic Field Effects and Transverse Ratchets in Charge Lattices Coupled to Asymmetric Substrates