1. Moiré alchemy: artificial atoms, Wigner molecules, and emergent Kagome lattice
- Author
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Reddy, Aidan P., Devakul, Trithep, and Fu, Liang
- Subjects
Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) ,Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) ,FOS: Physical sciences - Abstract
Semiconductor moiré superlattices comprise an array of artificial atoms and provide a highly tunable platform for exploring novel electronic phases. We introduce a theoretical framework for studying moiré quantum matter that treats intra-moiré-atom interactions exactly and is controlled in the limit of large moiré period. We reveal an abundance of new physics arising from strong electron interactions when there are multiple electrons within a moiré unit cell. In particular, at filling factor $n=3$, the Coulomb interaction within each three-electron moiré atom leads to a three-lobed "Wigner molecule". When their size is comparable to the moiré period, the Wigner molecules form an emergent Kagome lattice. Our work identifies two universal length scales characterizing the kinetic and interaction energies in moiré materials and demonstrates a rich phase diagram due to their interplay., main 4 pages, 4 figures; supplement 11 pages, 3 figures. changes in v2: additional references and supplementary material added, minor changes to main text
- Published
- 2023
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