We introduce a general framework to study moiré structures of two-dimensional Van der Waals magnets using continuum field theory. The formalism eliminates quasiperiodicity and allows a full understanding of magnetic structures and their excitations. In particular, we analyze in detail twisted bilayers of Néel antiferromagnets on the honeycomb lattice. A rich phase diagram with non-collinear twisted phases is obtained, and spin waves are further calculated. Direct extensions to zig-zag antiferromagnets and ferromagnets are also presented. We anticipate the results and formalism presented to lead to a broad range of applications to both fundamental research and experiments.
We study untwisted heterobilayers of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic van der Waals materials, with in particular a Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in the ferromagnetic layer. A continuum low energy field theory is utilized to study such systems. We develop a phase diagram as a function of the strength of inter-layer exchange and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions, combining perturbative and strong coupling analyses with numerical simulations using Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equations. Various moiré-periodic commensurate phases are found, and the commensurate-incommensurate transition is dis…
Detecting magnetic order at the nanoscale is of central interest for the study of quantum magnetism in general, and the emerging field of moiré magnets in particular. Here, we analyze the exciton band structure that arises from a periodic modulation of the valley Zeeman effect. Despite long-range electron-hole exchange interactions, we find a sizable splitting in the energy of the bright circularly-polarized exciton Umklapp resonances, which serves as a direct optical probe of magnetic order. We first analyze quantum moiré magnets realized by periodic ordering of electron spins in Mott-Wigner …
Small-twist-angle transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) heterobilayers develop isolated flat moiré bands that are approximately described by triangular lattice generalized Hubbard models [PhysRevLett.121.026402]. In this article we explore the metallic and insulating states that appear under different control conditions at a density of one-electron per moiré period, and the transitions between them. By combining fully self-consistent Hartree-Fock theory calculations with strong-coupling expansions around the atomic limit, we identify four different magnetic states and one nonmagnetic state nea…
We explore the skyrmion formation and control possibilities in 2D magnets from the ubiquitous moiré pattern in vdW heterostructures. Using the example of a ferromagnetic monolayer on an antiferromagnetic substrate, we demonstrate a new origin of skyrmions in the 2D magnets, from the lateral modulation of interlayer magnetic coupling by the locally different atomic registries in moiré. The moiré skyrmions are doubly degenerate with opposite topological charge, and trapped at an ordered array of sites with the moiré periodicity that can be dramatically tuned by strain and interlayer translation.…
The discovery of flat bands with non-trivial band topology in magic angle twisted bi-layer graphene (MATBG) has provided a unique platform to study strongly correlated phe-nomena including superconductivity, correlated insulators, Chern insulators and magnetism. A fundamental feature of the MATBG, so far unexplored, is its high magnetic field Hof-stadter spectrum. Here we report on a detailed magneto-transport study of a MATBG de-vice in external magnetic fields of up to B = 31 T, corresponding to one magnetic flux quan-tum per moiré unit cell Φ0. At Φ0, we observe a re-entrant correlated insu…
Magnetic skyrmions in 2D chiral magnets are in general stabilized by a combination of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and external magnetic field. Here, we show that skyrmions can also be stabilized in twisted moiré superlattices in the absence of an external magnetic field. Our setup consists of a 2D ferromagnetic layer twisted on top of an antiferromagnetic substrate. The coupling between the ferromagnetic layer and the substrate generates an effective alternating exchange field. We find a large region of skyrmion crystal phase when the length scales of the moiré periodicity and skyrmions …
University of Michigan（密歇根大学）；ITMO University（ITMO大学）；The University of Texas at Dallas（德克萨斯大学达拉斯分校）；Georgia Institute of Technology（佐治亚理工学院）；University of Iceland（冰岛大学）
We explore the moiré magnon bands in twisted bilayer magnets with next-nearest neighboring Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions, assuming that the out-of-plane collinear magnetic order is preserved under weak interlayer coupling. By calculating the magnonic band structures and the topological Chern numbers for four representative cases, we find that (i) the valley moiré bands are extremely flat over a wide range of continuous twist angles; (ii) the topological Chern numbers of the lowest few flat bands vary significantly with the twist angle; and (iii) the lowest few topological flat bands in bi…
Moiré spintronics: Emergent phenomena, material realization and machine learning accelerating discovery
Center for Quantum Matter, School of Physics, Zhejiang University（浙江大学物理学院量子物质中心）；Department of Physics, University of Houston（休斯顿大学物理系）；Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials (ISEM), University of Wollongong（伍伦贡大学超导与电子材料研究所）
It is widely known that the twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) shows flat bands at magic angles, which can be well described by the effective continuum model derived by Bistritzer and MacDonald (BM). We propose in this paper a similar twisted bilayer system but defined on the square lattice with $π$-flux per plaquette, and study its spectrum using the BM Hamiltonian with a mass term which is originated from the staggered potential. The basic difference between the TBG and the present model is simply rotational symmetry, $C_3$ vs $C_4$, as well as a mass term. Nevertheless, the feature of the flat …
We present a comprehensive dynamical mean field study of the triangular lattice moiré Hubbard model, which is believed to represent the physics of moiré bilayer transition metal dichalcogenides. In these materials, important aspects of the band structure including the bandwidth and the order and location of van Hove singularities can be tuned by varying the interlayer potential. We present a magnetic and metal-insulator phase diagram and a detailed study of the dependence of the resistivity on temperature, band filling and interlayer potential. We find that transport displays Fermi liquid, str…
The spatial texture of internal degree of freedom of electrons has profound effects on the properties of materials. Such texture in real space can manifest as an emergent magnetic field (or Berry curvature), which is expected to induce interesting valley/spin-related transport phenomena. Moiré pattern, which emerges as a spatial variation at the interface of 2D atomic crystals, provides a natural platform for investigating such real space Berry curvature effects. Here we study moiré structures formed in homobilayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) due to twisting, various uniform strain…
Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect, the well-known archetype of electron-wave interference phenomena, has been explored extensively through transport measurements. However, these techniques lack spatial resolution that would be indispensable for studying the magnetic and electrostatic AB oscillations at the nanometer scale. Here, we demonstrated that scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) can be used as an AB interferometer operating on nanometer length scales and the magneto-electric Aharonov-Bohm effect in minimally twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) was directly measured by using STM. In the minimally TBG,…
A moiré pattern occurs when two periodic structures in a system have a slight mismatch period, resulting the coexistence of distinct phases in different large-scale spacial regions of the same system. Two periodic structures can arise from periodic electric and magnetic fields, respectively. We investigated the moiré pattern via a dimerized Kitaev spin chain with a periodic transverse field, which can be mapped onto the system of dimerized spinless fermions with p-wave superconductivity. The exact solution for staggered field demonstrated that the ground state has two distinct phases: (i) Neel…
A remarkable property of twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) with small twist angle is the presence of a well-defined and conserved low-energy valley degrees of freedom1, which can potentially bring about new types of valley-associated spontaneous-symmetry breaking phases. Electron-electron (e-e) interactions in the TBG near the magic angle 1.1 degree can lift the valley degeneracy, allowing for the realization of orbital magnetism and topological phases2-11. However, direct measurement of the orbital-based magnetism in the TBG is still lacking up to now. Here we report evidence for orbital magneti…
Observation of spin-wave moiré edge and cavity modes in twisted magnetic lattices
Beihang University（北京航空航天大学）；International Quantum Academy, Shenzhen（深圳国际量子学院）；ETH Zurich（苏黎世联邦理工学院）；Università di Perugia（佩鲁贾大学）；Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech)（南方科技大学）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）；Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院）
The interplay between strong correlations and non-trivial topology in twisted moiré systems can give rise to a rich landscape of ordered states that intertwine the spin, valley, and charge degrees of freedom. In this paper, we investigate the properties of a system that displays long-range valley-polarized nematic order. Besides breaking the threefold rotational symmetry of the triangular moiré superlattice, this type of order also breaks twofold rotational and time-reversal symmetries, which leads to interesting properties. First, we develop a phenomenological model to describe the onset of t…
We develop a comprehensive theory of twisted bilayer magnetism. Starting from the first-principles calculations of two-dimensional honeycomb magnet CrI3, we construct the generic spin models that represent a broad class of twisted bilayer magnetic systems. Using Monte-Carlo method, we discover a variety of non-collinear magnetic orders and topological magnons that have been overlooked in the previous theoretical and experimental studies. As a function of the twist angle, the collinear magnetic order undergoes the phase transitions to the non-collinear order and the magnetic domain phase. In th…
Emergence of moiré magnetic chaos in twisted bilayer CrI3
Korea Institute of Science and Technology（韩国科学技术院）；Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics（亚太理论物理中心）；Pohang University of Science and Technology（浦项科技大学）
We study the magneto-optical conductivity of a number of Van der Waals heterostructures, namely, twisted bilayer graphene, AB-AB and AB-BA stacked twisted double bilayer graphene and monolayer graphene and AB-stacked bilayer graphene on hexagonal boron nitride. As magnetic field increases, the absorption spectrum exhibits a self-similar recursive pattern reflecting the fractal nature of the energy spectrum. Whilst twisted bilayer graphene displays only weak circular dichroism, monolayer graphene and AB-stacked bilayer graphene on hexagonal boron nitride show specifically strong circular dichro…
We analyze the orbital magnetic susceptibility from the band structure of twisted bilayer graphene. Close to charge neutrality, the out-of-plane susceptibility inherits the strong diamagnetic response from graphene. Increasing the doping, a crossover from diamagnetism to paramagnetism is obtained and a logarithmic divergence develops at the van Hove singularity of the Moiré lattice in the first band. The enhanced paramagnetism at the van Hove singularity is stronger for relatively large angle but gets suppressed by the flat spectrum towards the vicinity of the first magic angle. A diverging pa…
The electronic structure of a crystalline solid is largely determined by its lattice structure. Recent advances in van der Waals solids, artificial crystals with controlled stacking of two-dimensional (2D) atomic films, have enabled the creation of materials with novel electronic structures. In particular, stacking graphene on hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) introduces moiré superlattice that fundamentally modifies graphene's band structure and gives rise to secondary Dirac points (SDPs). Here we find that the formation of a moiré superlattice in graphene on hBN yields new, unexpected consequenc…
Moiré superlattice created by twist stacking has multiple physical properties. These physical properties depend on the twist angle, hence investigation of the twist angle dependency is important for the deep understanding of physical phenomena in moiré superlattice. In this work, negative magnetoresistance owing to weak localization (WL) was investigated in twisted double bilayer graphene (TDBG) as a function of the twist angle. The ratio of the intervalley scattering time to the intravalley scattering time, estimated using the WL formula for bilayer graphene, tended to decrease as the twist a…
Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS（巴黎萨克雷大学固体物理实验室，法国国家科学研究中心）；O. Ya. Usikov Institute for Radiophysics and Electronics, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine（乌克兰国家科学院O.Ya.尤西科夫无线电物理与电子研究所）；Research Center for Electronic and Optical Materials, National Institute for Materials Science（国立材料研究所电子与光学材料研究中心）；International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science（国立材料研究所国际材料纳米架构中心）；Centre de nanosciences et de nanotechnologies, Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS（巴黎萨克雷大学纳米科学与纳米技术中心，法国国家科学研究中心）
