Atomically assembled van der Waals heterostructures provide an emerging platform for engineering quantum matter with unprecedented precision. In these systems, twist angles, interlayer coupling, and electrostatic control create moiré superlattices that reshape the electronic and magnetic energy landscapes of two-dimensional materials. In this talk, I will present our recent progress in designing programmable moiré heterostructures that enable the discovery and control of emergent quasiparticles and correlated phases. I will discuss bichromatic transition metal dichalcogenide moiré trilayers, where the interference of multiple moiré potentials creates a highly tunable multi-orbital landscape. Using optical spectroscopy, we observe the emergence of interlayer valley excitons and identify interlayer quadrupolar moiré trions arising from the interplay between engineered moiré potentials and layer degrees of freedom. These results highlight the rich many- body physics enabled by multi-orbital moiré platforms. I will then show how interfacial design and twist-controlled stacking can be used to program quantum magnetism in two-dimensional heterostructures. Our results illustrate how moiré engineering and heterostructure design provide powerful tools to realize electrically tunable correlated states and programmable quantum phases, opening new opportunities for quantum simulation, spintronics, and optoelectronic quantum technologies.
Xi Wang, Assistant Professor, Washington University
Host: Venkat Chandrasekhar
Joan West
(847) 491-3645
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