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Orbital Chern Insulators in van der Waals Moiré Systems

Objective

Topological electronic phases manifest fascinating phenomena, including electronic transport via topologically-protected edge states, anomalous responses to external fields, and excitations with anyonic statistics. Harnessing these phenomena in electronic devices will lead to a technological breakthrough. The main obstacle to this has been the lack of topological systems that are simultaneously clean, versatile, robust, and highly tunable. We argue that the recent discovery of orbital Chern insulators (OCI) in graphene moiré heterostructures opens an exceptional opportunity to make a leap in our ability to manipulate topological electronic phases.

Recently, moiré superlattices in van der Waals materials emerged as a powerful tool to realize correlated electronic phases. The exciting discovery of intrinsic quantum anomalous Hall effects in graphene moiré systems revealed interaction-driven orbital Chern insulating states at zero magnetic field. Unlike in most known magnets, the magnetism in OCIs arises predominantly from the orbital motion of the electrons rather than their spins, endowing them with unique properties. Remarkably, the moiré heterostructures hosting OCIs could also be gate-tuned to superconducting, correlated insulating, and metallic isospin-ferromagnetic states, which opens unprecedented opportunities for novel devices. These unique features of OCIs set them apart and warrant their thorough investigation.

This proposal aims to establish the fundamental properties of OCIs, focusing on three key questions: (i) What are the phase diagram, isospin order, and thermodynamics of OCIs? (ii) What is the physics of the chiral edge states and domain walls in OCIs? (iii) Can strong interactions in flat moiré bands lead to fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect? To address these questions, we will apply a combination of complementary experimental techniques to probe electronic transport and thermodynamic properties in high-quality graphene moiré devices.

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Topic(s)

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HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2023-STG

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Host institution

INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AUSTRIA
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 831 500,00
Address
Am Campus 1
3400 KLOSTERNEUBURG
Austria

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Region
Ostösterreich Niederösterreich Wiener Umland/Nordteil
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 831 500,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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