Interaction-Driven Topological Phase Diagram of Twisted Bilayer MoTe_{2}

• Published in: Physical review. X 2023-11, Vol.13 (4), p.041026
• Main Authors: Wen-Xuan Qiu, Bohao Li, Xun-Jiang Luo, Fengcheng Wu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2160-3308
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevX.13.041026

Twisted bilayer MoTe_{2} is a promising platform to investigate the interplay between band topology and many-body interactions. We present a theoretical study of its interaction-driven quantum phase diagrams based on a three-orbital model, which can be viewed as a generalization of the Kane-Mele-Hubbard model with one additional orbital and long-range Coulomb repulsion. We predict a cascade of phase transitions tuned by the twist angle θ. At the hole-filling factor ν=1 (one hole per moiré unit cell), the ground state can be in the multiferroic phase, with coexisting spontaneous layer polarization and magnetism; the quantum anomalous Hall phase; and finally, the topologically trivial magnetic phases, as θ increases from 1.5° to 5°. At ν=2, the ground state can have a second-order phase transition between an antiferromagnetic phase and the quantum spin Hall phase as θ passes through a critical value. The dependence of the phase boundaries on model parameters, such as the gate-to-sample distance, the dielectric constant, and the moiré potential amplitude, is examined. The predicted phase diagrams can guide the search for topological phases in twisted transition metal dichalcogenide homobilayers.