Search for: All records

Abstract The recent discovery of topological flat bands in twisted transition metal dichalcogenide homobilayers and multilayer graphene has sparked significant research interest. Here, a new platform for realizing tunable topological moiré flat bands: twisted type‐II Rashba homobilayers, is proposed. By maintaining centrosymmetry, the interplay between Rashba spin‐orbit coupling and interlayer interactions generates an effective pseudo‐antiferromagnetic field, opening a gap within the Dirac cone with non‐zero Berry curvature. Using twisted BiTeI bilayers as an example, it is predicted that the emergence of flat topological bands with a remarkably narrow bandwidth (below 20 meV). Notably, the system undergoes a transition from a valley Hall insulator to a quantum spin Hall insulator as the twisting angle increases. This transition arises from a competition between the twisting‐driven effective spin‐orbit coupling and sublattice onsite energies presented in type‐II Rashba moiré structures. The high tunability of Rashba materials in terms of the spin‐orbit coupling strength, interlayer interaction, and twisting angle expands the range of materials suitable for functionalizing and manipulating correlated topological properties. 

Abstract Moiré potential profile can form flat electronic bands and manifest correlated states of electrons, where carrier doping is essential for observing those correlations. In this work, we uncover a hidden but remarkable many-electron effect: doped carriers form a two-dimensional plasmon and strongly couple with quasiparticles to renormalize moiré potential and realize ultra-flat bands. Using many-body perturbation theory, we demonstrate this effect in twisted MoS₂/WS₂heterobilayer. The moiré potential is significantly enhanced upon carrier doping, and the bandwidth is reduced by order of magnitude, leading to drastic quenching of electronic kinetic energy and stronger correlation. We further predict that the competition between correlated mechanisms can be effectively controlled via doping, giving hope to a quantum transition between Mott and charge-transfer insulating states. Our work reveals that the potential renormalization effect of doping is much more significant in determining and controlling many-electron electronic correlations than sole filling-factor tuning in semiconducting moiré crystals.