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. 2019 Mar 1;122(8):086402.
doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.086402.

Topological Insulators in Twisted Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Homobilayers

Fengcheng Wu  1   2 , Timothy Lovorn  3 , Emanuel Tutuc  4 , Ivar Martin  1 , A H MacDonald  3
Affiliations

Topological Insulators in Twisted Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Homobilayers

Fengcheng Wu et al. Phys Rev Lett. .

Abstract

We show that moiré bands of twisted homobilayers can be topologically nontrivial, and illustrate the tendency by studying valence band states in ±K valleys of twisted bilayer transition metal dichalcogenides, in particular, bilayer MoTe_{2}. Because of the large spin-orbit splitting at the monolayer valence band maxima, the low energy valence states of the twisted bilayer MoTe_{2} at the +K (-K) valley can be described using a two-band model with a layer-pseudospin magnetic field Δ(r) that has the moiré period. We show that Δ(r) has a topologically nontrivial skyrmion lattice texture in real space, and that the topmost moiré valence bands provide a realization of the Kane-Mele quantum spin-Hall model, i.e., the two-dimensional time-reversal-invariant topological insulator. Because the bands narrow at small twist angles, a rich set of broken symmetry insulating states can occur at integer numbers of electrons per moiré cell.

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