Fractional Chern Insulator in Twisted Bilayer MoTe 2

A recent experiment has reported the first observation of a zero-field fractional Chern insulator (FCI) phase in twisted bilayer MoTe_{2} moiré superlattices [J. Cai et al., Signatures of fractional quantum anomalous Hall states in twisted MoTe_{2}, Nature (London) 622, 63 (2023).NATUAS0028-083610.1038/s41586-023-06289-w]. The experimental observation is at an unexpected large twist angle 3.7° and calls for a better understanding of the FCI in real materials. In this Letter, we perform large-scale density functional theory calculation for the twisted bilayer MoTe_{2} and find that lattice reconstruction is crucial for the appearance of an isolated flat Chern band. The existence of the FCI state at ν=-2/3 is…

• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy

  Awards: DE-SC0012509, DE-SC0019443
• H2
  Horizon 2020 Framework Programme

  Award: 804213-TMCS
• ME
  Molecular Engineering Materials Center, University of Washington

  Award: DMR-1719797
• BE
  Basic Energy Sciences
• HE
  H2020 European Research Council
• EF
  Energy Frontier Research Centers