Imaging local discharge cascades for correlated electrons in WS2/WSe2 moiré superlattices

Li, Hongyuan; Li, Shaowei; Naik, Mit H.; Xie, Jingxu; Li, Xinyu; Regan, Emma; Wang, Danqing; Zhao, Wenyu; Yumigeta, Kentaro; Blei, Mark; Taniguchi, Takashi; Watanabe, Kenji; Tongay, Sefaattin; Zettl, Alex; Louie, Steven G.; Crommie, Michael F.; Wang, Feng

doi:10.1038/s41567-021-01324-x

Imaging local discharge cascades for correlated electrons in WS₂/WSe₂ moiré superlattices

Journal Article · Mon Aug 16 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Nature Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-021-01324-x· OSTI ID:1891875

^[1]; ^[2]; Naik, Mit H. ^[1]; Xie, Jingxu ^[3]; Li, Xinyu ^[3]; ^[1]; Wang, Danqing ^[3]; Zhao, Wenyu ^[3]; Yumigeta, Kentaro ^[4]; Blei, Mark ^[4]; ^[5]; ^[5]; ^[4]; Zettl, Alex ^[1]; ^[1]; ^[1]; ^[1]

Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA (United States)
Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)
National Inst. for Materials Science, Tsukuba (Japan)

Transition metal dichalcogenide moiré heterostructures provide an ideal platform to explore the extended Hubbard model, where long-range Coulomb interactions play a critical role in determining strongly correlated electron states. This has led to experimental observations of Mott insulator states at half filling as well as a variety of extended Wigner crystal states at different fractional fillings. However, a microscopic understanding of these emerging quantum phases is still lacking. Here we describe a scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) technique for the local sensing and manipulation of correlated electrons in a gated WS₂/WSe₂ moiré superlattice, which enables the experimental extraction of fundamental extended Hubbard model parameters. We demonstrate that the charge state of the local moiré sites can be imaged by their influence on the STM tunnelling current. In addition to imaging, we are also able to manipulate the charge state of correlated electrons. When we ramp the bias on the STM tip, there is a local discharge cascade of correlated electrons in the moiré superlattice, which allows us to estimate the nearest-neighbour Coulomb interaction. Two-dimensional mapping of the moiré electron charge states also enables us to determine the on-site energy fluctuations at different moiré sites. Furthermore, our technique should be broadly applicable to many semiconductor moiré systems, offering a powerful tool for the microscopic characterization and control of strongly correlated states in moiré superlattices.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences; JSPS KAKENHI; MEXT; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231; SC0020653

OSTI ID:: 1891875

Journal Information:: Nature Physics, Journal Name: Nature Physics Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 17; ISSN 1745-2473

Publisher:: Nature Publishing Group (NPG)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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