Spinon pairing induced by chiral in-plane exchange and the stabilization of odd-spin Chern number spin liquid in twisted ${\mathrm{MoTe}}_2$

Abstract

The unusual structure and symmetry of low-energy states in twisted transition metal dichalcogenides leads to large in-plane spin-exchange interactions between spin-valley locked holes. We demonstrate that this exchange interaction can stabilize a gapped spin-liquid phase with a quantized spin-Chern number of three when the twist angle is sufficiently small and the system lies in a Mott insulating phase. The gapped spin liquid may be understood as arising from spinon pairing in the DIII Altland-Zirnbauer symmetry class. Applying an out of plane electric field or increasing the twist angle is shown to drive a transition respectively to an anomalous Hall insulator or an in-plane antiferromagnet. Recent experiments indicate that a spin-Chern number three phase occurs in twisted MoTe${}_2$ at small twist angles with a transition to a quantum anomalous Hall phase as the twist angle is increased above a critical value of about $2.5^{\circ }$ in absence of applied electric field.

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• Twist-angle evolution of the intervalley-coherent antiferromagnet in twisted WSe${}_2$
• Theory of intervalley-coherent AFM order and topological superconductivity in tWSe${}_2$
• Topologically protected flatness in chiral moiré heterostructures
• Twistronics and moiré superlattice physics in 2D transition metal dichalcogenides
• Chiral Spin Liquid and Quantum Phase Transition in the Triangular Lattice Hofstadter-Hubbard Model
• Quantum-geometric dipole: a topological boost to flavor ferromagnetism in flat bands
• Site-polarized Mott phases competing with a correlated metal in twisted WSe${}_2$
• Efficient prediction of topological superlattice bands with spin-orbit coupling
• Onset of spin-valley order and Stoner boundaries in twisted WSe${}_2$