English

Time-reversal symmetry breaking fractional quantum spin Hall insulator in moir\'e MoTe2

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2025-01-14 v3 Strongly Correlated Electrons

Abstract

Twisted bilayer transition metal dichalcogenide semiconductors, which support flat Chern bands with enhanced interaction effects, realize a platform for fractional Chern insulators and fractional quantum spin Hall (FQSH) insulators. A recent experiment has reported the emergence of a FQSH insulator protected by spin-Sz conservation at a moir\'e lattice filling factor {\nu}=3 in 2.1-degree twisted bilayer MoTe2. Theoretical studies have proposed both time-reversal symmetric and asymmetric ground states as possible candidates for the observed FQSH insulator, but the nature of the state remains unexplored. Here we report the observation of spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking at generic fillings in 2.1-degree twisted bilayer MoTe2 from {\nu}<1 all the way to {\nu}>6 except at {\nu}=2, 4, and 6. Although zero Hall response is observed at {\nu}=3 for magnetic fields higher than 20 mT, a finite anomalous Hall response accompanied by a magnetic hysteresis is observed at lower magnetic fields, demonstrating spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking. Our work shows the tendency towards ferromagnetism by doping the first three pairs of conjugate Chern bands in the material; it also sheds light on the nature of the FQSH insulator at {\nu}=3.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2501.02525,
  title  = {Time-reversal symmetry breaking fractional quantum spin Hall insulator in moir\'e MoTe2},
  author = {Kaifei Kang and Yichen Qiu and Bowen Shen and Kihong Lee and Zhengchao Xia and Yihang Zeng and Kenji Watanabe and Takashi Taniguchi and Jie Shan and Kin Fai Mak},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.02525},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

In Supplemental Figure 4, we contrast a 2.6-degree device with a 2.1-degree device