Signatures of Fractional Quantum Anomalous Hall States in Twisted MoTe2

Nature (2023)Cite this article

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The interplay between spontaneous symmetry breaking and topology can result in exotic quantum states of matter. A celebrated example is the quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) state, which exhibits an integer quantum Hall effect at zero magnetic field due to intrinsic ferromagnetism1-3. In the presence of strong electron-electron interactions, fractional-QAH (FQAH) states at zero magnetic field can emerge4-8. These states could host fractional excitations, including non-Abelian anyons – crucial building blocks for topological quantum computation9. Here, we report experimental signatures of FQAH states in twisted MoTe2 bilayer. Magnetic circular dichroism measurements reveal robust ferromagnetic states at fractionally hole filled moiré minibands. Using trion photoluminescence as a sensor10, we obtain a Landau fan diagram showing linear shifts in carrier densities corresponding to the v = -2/3 and -3/5 ferromagnetic states with applied magnetic field. These shifts match the Streda formula dispersion of FQAH states with fractionally quantized Hall conductance of ${{\boldsymbol{\sigma }}}_{{\boldsymbol{xy}}}=-\frac{2}{3}\frac{{e}^{2}}{h}$ and $-\frac{3}{5}\frac{{e}^{2}}{h}$, respectively. Moreover, the v = -1 state exhibits a dispersion corresponding to Chern number -1, consistent with the predicted QAH state11-14. In comparison, several non-ferromagnetic states on the electron doping side do not disperse, i.e., are trivial correlated insulators. The observed topological states can be electrically driven into topologically trivial states. Our findings provide evidence of the long-sought FQAH states, demonstrating MoTe2 moiré superlattices as a fascinating platform for exploring fractional excitations.

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These authors contributed equally: Jiaqi Cai, Eric Anderson

Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA

Jiaqi Cai, Eric Anderson, William Holtzmann, Yinong Zhang, Di Xiao & Xiaodong Xu

Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA

Chong Wang, Xiaowei Zhang, Xiaoyu Liu, Ting Cao, Di Xiao & Xiaodong Xu

Department of Physics, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

Fengren Fan & Wang Yao

HKU-UCAS Joint Institute of Theoretical and Computational Physics at Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

Fengren Fan & Wang Yao

International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Japan

Takashi Taniguchi

Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Japan

Kenji Watanabe

Department of Physics, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA

Ying Ran

Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Liang Fu

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Correspondence to Xiaodong Xu.

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Cai, J., Anderson, E., Wang, C. et al. Signatures of Fractional Quantum Anomalous Hall States in Twisted MoTe2. Nature (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06289-w

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Received: 01 April 2023

Accepted: 06 June 2023

Published: 14 June 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06289-w

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