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Evidence of frustrated magnetic interactions in a Wigner-Mott insulator

Cornell Affiliated Author(s)

Author

Yanhao Tang
Kaixiang Su
Lizhong Li
Yang Xu
Song Liu
Kenji Watanabe
Takashi Taniguchi
James Hone
Chao-Ming Jian
Cenke Xu
Kin Mak
Jie Shan

Abstract

Electrons in two-dimensional semiconductor moiré materials are more delocalized around the lattice sites than those in conventional solids1,2. The non-local contributions to the magnetic interactions can therefore be as important as the Anderson superexchange3, which makes the materials a unique platform to study the effects of competing magnetic interactions3,4. Here we report evidence of strongly frustrated magnetic interactions in a Wigner–Mott insulator at a two-thirds (2/3) filling of the moiré lattice in angle-aligned WSe2/WS2 bilayers. Magneto-optical measurements show that the net exchange interaction is antiferromagnetic for filling factors below 1 with a strong suppression at a 2/3 filling. The suppression is lifted on screening of the long-range Coulomb interactions and melting of the Wigner–Mott insulators by a nearby metallic gate. The results can be qualitatively captured by a honeycomb-lattice spin model with an antiferromagnetic nearest-neighbour coupling and a ferromagnetic second-neighbour coupling. Our study establishes semiconductor moiré materials as a model system for lattice-spin physics and frustrated magnetism5. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.

Date Published

Journal

Nature Nanotechnology

Volume

18

Issue

3

Number of Pages

233-237,

URL

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85146286142&doi=10.1038%2fs41565-022-01309-8&partnerID=40&md5=a0fccee63f556f1b2480dca5cddd5afe

DOI

10.1038/s41565-022-01309-8

Group (Lab)

Chao-Ming Jian Group
Jie Shan Group
Kin Fai Mak Group

Funding Source

DMR-1807810
FA9550-20-1-0219
DE-SC0019481
DMR-1719875
NNCI-2025233
12274365
DMR-1920434
JPMJCR15F3
2022YFA1402403
2022YFA1405400

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