Stripe states in Chern Insulators

Magnetic excitations in moiré transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMD) Chern insulator states  include magnons and domain-wall textures. Because of the difference between their Streda slopes,  insulating  states with opposite sign of Hall conductivity appear at different electron densities when an external magnetic field is applied.

We show that under favorable circumstance this can lead to translational-symmetry–broken domain-wall lattice (“stripe” states at intermediate densities.

In the stripe phase, periodic valley-domain order generates topological edge modes localized at domain interfaces. Owing to spin–valley locking and opposite Chern number in different valleys, these interface channels support co-propagating charge currents with opposite spin polarization. These results identify a field-tunable route to chiral edge transport via domain-wall engineering in moiré TMDs and suggest clear magneto-transport signatures accessible in current devices.