Bilayer Wigner crystals in a transition metal dichalcogenide heterostructure

Journal Article · Wed Jun 30 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Nature (London)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03560-w· OSTI ID:1832032

Zhou, You ^[1]; Sung, Jiho ^[2]; Brutschea, Elise ^[2]; Esterlis, Ilya ^[2]; Wang, Yao ^[3]; Scuri, Giovanni ^[2]; Gelly, Ryan J. ^[2]; Heo, Hoseok ^[2]; Taniguchi, Takashi ^[4]; Watanabe, Kenji ^[4]; Zaránd, Gergely ^[5]; Lukin, Mikhail D. ^[2]; Kim, Philip ^[2]; Demler, Eugene ^[6]; Park, Hongkun ^[2]

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1. Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States); Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States); Stanford University
2. Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
3. Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States); Clemson Univ., SC (United States)
4. National Inst. for Materials Science, Tsukuba (Japan)
5. Budapest Univ. of Technology and Economics (Hungary)
6. Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States); ETH Zürich (Switzerland)

One of the first theoretically predicted manifestations of strong interactions in many-electron systems was the Wigner crystal, in which electrons crystallize into a regular lattice. The crystal can melt via either thermal or quantum fluctuations. Quantum melting of the Wigner crystal is predicted to produce exotic intermediate phases and quantum magnetism because of the intricate interplay of Coulomb interactions and kinetic energy. However, studying two-dimensional Wigner crystals in the quantum regime has often required a strong magnetic field or a moiré superlattice potential, thus limiting access to the full phase diagram of the interacting electron liquid. Here we report the observation of bilayer Wigner crystals without magnetic fields or moiré potentials in an atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenide heterostructure, which consists of two MoSe₂ monolayers separated by hexagonal boron nitride. We observe optical signatures of robust correlated insulating states at symmetric (1:1) and asymmetric (3:1, 4:1 and 7:1) electron doping of the two MoSe₂ layers at cryogenic temperatures. Here, we attribute these features to bilayer Wigner crystals composed of two interlocked commensurate triangular electron lattices, stabilized by inter-layer interaction. The Wigner crystal phases are remarkably stable, and undergo quantum and thermal melting transitions at electron densities of up to 6 × 10¹² per square centimetre and at temperatures of up to about 40 kelvin. Our results demonstrate that an atomically thin heterostructure is a highly tunable platform for realizing many-body electronic states and probing their liquid–solid and magnetic quantum phase transitions.

• Research Organization: Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0020115; AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 1832032
• Journal Information: Nature (London), Journal Name: Nature (London) Journal Issue: 7865 Vol. 595; ISSN 0028-0836
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
Electronic properties and materials
Phase transitions and critical phenomena
Quantum fluids and solids
Two-dimensional materials