Emergent gauge fields from curvature in single layers of transition-metal dichalcogenides

TL;DR

This paper explores how curvature in single-layer transition-metal dichalcogenides creates emergent gauge fields affecting electron behavior, with implications for detecting geometric magnetic fields via interference experiments.

Contribution

It demonstrates that lattice curvature induces gauge fields linked to Berry connection, revealing a geometric origin of magnetic effects in these materials.

Findings

Curvature generates gauge fields affecting electron dynamics.

Topological defects create measurable gauge fields.

Ripples induce dephasing similar to magnetic fields.

Abstract

We analyze the electron dynamics in corrugated layers of transition-metal dichalcogenides. Due to the strong spin-orbit coupling, the intrinsic (Gaussian) curvature leads to an emergent gauge field associated with the Berry connection of the spinor wave function. We discuss the gauge field created by topological defects of the lattice, namely, tetragonal/octogonal disclinations and edge dislocations. Ripples and topological disorder induce the same dephasing effects as a random magnetic field, suppressing the weak localization effects. This geometric magnetic field can be detected in a Aharonov-Bohm interferometry experiment by measuring the local density of states in the vicinity of corrugations.