Spontaneously formed excitonic density wave with vortex-antivortex lattice in twisted semiconductor bilayers

TL;DR

This paper predicts the spontaneous formation of excitonic density waves with vortex-antivortex lattice structures in twisted semiconductor bilayers, revealing new correlated quantum states with unique symmetry-breaking and transport properties.

Contribution

It demonstrates that kinetic frustration stabilizes novel excitonic condensates with nontrivial phase patterns, a phenomenon not previously observed in two-dimensional semiconductors.

Findings

Vortex-antivortex lattice excitonic states are stabilized by kinetic frustration.

These states break time-reversal and inversion symmetries, enabling excitonic diode effects.

Impurity-induced states provide signatures for experimental detection.

Abstract

Exciton condensation, characterized by uniform phase coherence across macroscopic length scales, has enabled the discovery of a variety of excitonic states, greatly enriching our understanding of correlated many-body physics. More exotic quantum phenomena are anticipated when the phase factor develops spatial dependence. However, whether excitonic condensates with spatially modulated phase profiles can emerge spontaneously remains an open question. In this work, we uncover novel forms of excitonic density waves featuring nontrivial phase patterns in twisted semiconductor bilayers. Remarkably, we show that kinetic frustration inherent to these systems stabilizes excitonic condensates arranged into a vortex-antivortex lattice. This represents a class of correlated states previously unknown in two-dimensional semiconductors, wherein the phase degrees of freedom of exciton condensates play a defining role. Such states spontaneously break both time-reversal and inversion symmetries, leading to non-reciprocal exciton transport, an effect we term the excitonic diode effect. Furthermore, we compute and identify characteristic impurity-induced states in these unconventional condensates, providing distinct signatures for their experimental detection.