Electromagnetic response and emergent topological orders in transition metal dichalcogenide MoTe${}_2$ bilayers

Abstract

Twisted bilayer transition metal dichalcogenides, such as MoTe${}_2$, provide a versatile platform for exploring correlated topological phases. This work investigates the interplay of perpendicular magnetic and electric fields in tuning the electronic structure and emergent topological orders of twisted bilayer MoTe${}_2$ (t-MoTe${}_2$) across two distinct regimes: a low-twist-angle phase ($\theta \approx 2.1^{\circ }$) hosting multiple Chern bands of identical Chern numbers per valley, and a higher-angle phase ($\theta \approx 3.89^{\circ }$) featuring Haldane-like bands with opposite Chern numbers. Using a continuum model incorporating moiré potentials up to second harmonics, we compute the Hofstadter fractal spectra under applied fields, revealing Landau fan structures and magnetic-flux-dependent band topology. These fractal spectra are useful in studying emergent topological orders in terms of the composite fermion picture, where the statistical Chern-Simons flux is approximated as a uniform gauge field. We demonstrate that the system hosts both Jain-sequence fractional Chern insulators (FCIs) and non-Jain "fractal FCIs" with higher Chern numbers. The electric field suppresses composite fermion gaps and induces topological quantum phase transitions. Furthermore, our analysis extends to valley-contrasting flux attachment, proposing pathways to describe fractional quantum spin Hall states.

Main text: 9 pages and 8 figures

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Characterization of fractional Chern insulator quasiparticles in twisted homobilayer MoTe${}_2$
• Anyon superconductivity and plateau transitions in doped fractional quantum anomalous Hall insulators
• Symmetric localization of ${\nu }_{\text{tot}}=4/3$ fractional topological insulator edges
• Exciton-Anyon Binding in Fractional Chern Insulators: Spectral Fingerprints
• Anyon Dispersion in Aharonov-Casher Bands and Implications for Twisted MoTe${}_2$