Observation of two-component exciton condensates in an excitonic insulator

TL;DR

This paper provides experimental evidence for two-component exciton Bose-Einstein condensates in a van der Waals heterostructure, revealing multiple condensate phases and phase transitions driven by magnetic fields.

Contribution

It demonstrates the existence of multicomponent exciton BECs in a solid-state system and characterizes their phase behavior using magneto-optical spectroscopy.

Findings

Identification of three distinct exciton condensate phases.

Observation of a first-order quantum phase transition between condensate states.

Persistence of two-component condensates up to approximately 1.8 K.

Abstract

Macroscopic quantum coherence emerges when bosons condense into a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). First observed as a single-component superfluid in helium, BECs later emerged in ultracold atomic gases at nanokelvin temperatures as weakly interacting quantum fluids, which can also host multicomponent spinor condensates with rich internal degrees of freedom. Excitons provide a promising solid-state platform for BECs that can combine strong interactions, electrical tunability, high transition temperatures, and multicomponent order. Yet, conclusive evidence for condensation has remained elusive. Here, we report evidence of two-component exciton BECs in MoSe2/hBN/WSe2 electron-hole bilayers by directly probing the spin susceptibility of constituent electrons and holes. This heterostructure hosts equilibrium exciton fluids with four spin-valley flavors. Using magneto-optical spectroscopy in a dilution refrigerator, we reveal three exciton condensate phases with distinct flavor polarizations. At zero magnetic field, the many-body ground state is a coherent superposition of two simultaneously condensed intravalley exciton flavors. Under a magnetic field, the intravalley exciton condensate first switches to a two-component intervalley exciton condensate via a first-order quantum phase transition at a weak critical field, and then turns into a fully-polarized single-component condensate at high fields. The two-component condensates persist up to ~1.8 K. Our results establish van der Waals electron-hole bilayers as a versatile platform for exploring strongly interacting, multicomponent exciton BECs.