This article was written by Wendy Plump, Department of Chemistry.
In an experiment related to the theory of Luttinger Liquids (LLs), a team led by Princeton University physicists and chemists reports the realization of a one-dimensional linear array of LLs in a moiré superlattice – a new quantum state in an engineered structure made from a known material.
The material behind their discovery is twisted bilayer tungsten ditelluride (tWTe2). It displayed this exotic behavior when the angle between two stacked monolayers was twisted by about five degrees. The electrons in the material, which act freely in the thick bulk crystals, were strongly correlated when confined to the atomically thin twisted bilayers, forming perfect arrays of linear conducting channels in two dimensions. This behavior was not expected in typical, two-dimensional systems. The research, “One-Dimensional Luttinger Liquids in a Two-Dimensional Moiré Lattice,” was reported this week in Nature. The theory of Luttinger Liquids predicts how electrons move and behave in a one-dimensional system. There are ideas on how electrons, in extremely rare situations, could behave like an LL in a two-dimensional metal, but no experimental observations until now. (For the rest of the article, click the link below.)
Publication:
Wang, P., Yu, G., Kwan, Y.H. et al. One-dimensional Luttinger liquids in a two-dimensional moiré lattice. Nature 605, 57–62 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04514-6