Dielectric catastrophe at the Wigner-Mott transition in a moiré superlattice

Tang, Yanhao; Gu, Jie; Liu, Song; Watanabe, Kenji; Taniguchi, Takashi; Hone, James C.; Mak, Kin Fai; Shan, Jie

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-32037-1

Dielectric catastrophe at the Wigner-Mott transition in a moiré superlattice

Journal Article · Mon Jul 25 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Nature Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32037-1· OSTI ID:2471854

Tang, Yanhao ^[1]; ^[2]; Liu, Song ^[3]; ^[4]; ^[4]; ^[3]; Mak, Kin Fai ^[5]; ^[5]

Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (United States); Zhejiang University, Hangzhou (China); OSTI
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (United States)
Columbia University, New York, NY (United States)
National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba (Japan)
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (United States); Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science, Ithaca, NY (United States)

The bandwidth-tuned Wigner-Mott transition is an interaction-driven phase transition from a generalized Wigner crystal to a Fermi liquid. Because the transition is generally accompanied by both magnetic and charge-order instabilities, it remains unclear if a continuous Wigner-Mott transition exists. Here, we demonstrate bandwidth-tuned metal-insulator transitions at fixed fractional fillings of a MoSe₂/WS₂ moiré superlattice. The bandwidth is controlled by an out-of-plane electric field. The dielectric response is probed optically with the 2s exciton in a remote WSe₂ sensor layer. The exciton spectral weight is negligible for the metallic state with a large negative dielectric constant. It continuously vanishes when the transition is approached from the insulating side, corresponding to a diverging dielectric constant or a ‘dielectric catastrophe’ driven by the critical charge dynamics near the transition. Our results support the scenario of continuous Wigner-Mott transitions in two-dimensional triangular lattices and stimulate future explorations of exotic quantum phases in their vicinities.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF); US Army Research Office

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0019481

OSTI ID:: 2471854

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 13; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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