Spectroscopic evidence of correlation and band flattening in twisted bilayer MoTe<sub>2</sub>

ORAL

Abstract

Twisted bilayer MoTe2 (tMoTe2) is an emergent platform for exploring exotic quantum phases driven by the interplay between nontrivial band topology and strong electron correlations. Using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), we directly map the momentum-resolved band structure of tMoTe2 across a series of small twist angles, revealing distinct angle-dependent band reconstruction shaped by orbital character, interlayer coupling, and moiré potential modulation. This reconstruction manifests most clearly in the K-valley effective mass, which exhibits a non-monotonic evolution with twist angle, peaking near 2°, consistent with the predicted magic-angle band flattening. Complementary electrostatic gating and surface dosing further reveal the conduction band minimum, confirming tMoTe2 as a direct band gap semiconductor. These results establish a spectroscopic foundation for modeling and engineering emergent quantum phases in this moiré platform [1].

*Work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Contracts No. DE-AC02-76SF00515 and DE-AC02-05CH11231. Additional support from DOE Grant DE-SC0012509, the National Science Foundation (ECCS-2026822), the Simons Foundation, and JSPS KAKENHI (Grant Nos. 21H05233 and 23H02052).

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Publication: [1] Y. Deng et al., "Non-monotonic band flattening near the magic angle in twisted bilayer tMoTe2," arXiv:2509.08993 (2025).

Presenters

  • Yujun Deng

    • Stanford University

Authors

  • Yujun Deng

    • Stanford University

  • William G Holtzmann

    • University of Washington

  • Ziyan Zhu

    • Boston College
    • Stanford University

  • Timothy Zaklama

    • MIT
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Paulina Ewa Majchrzak

    • Stanford University

  • Takashi Taniguchi

    • National Institute for Materials Science
    • Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science
    • International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute of Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan
    • Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute of Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan

  • Kenji Watanabe

    • National Institute for Materials Science
    • Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute of Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan

  • Makoto Hashimoto

    • SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

  • Donghui Lu

    • SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

  • Christopher Jozwiak

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Advanced Light Source
    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
    • LBNL
    • Advanced Light Source
    • Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

  • Aaron Bostwick

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Advanced Light Source
    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
    • LBNL
    • Advanced Light Source
    • Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

  • Eli Rotenberg

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Liang Fu

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Thomas P Devereaux

    • Stanford University

  • Xiaodong Xu

    • University of Washington

  • Zhi-Xun Shen

    • Stanford University