DOE OSTI · 2879700
An electronic microemulsion phase emerging from a quantum crystal-to-liquid transition
Abstract
Strongly interacting electronic systems often exhibit a complicated phase diagram that results from the competition between different quantum ground states. One feature of these phase diagrams is the emergence of microemulsion phases, where regions of different phases self-organize across multiple length scales. The experimental characterization of these microemulsions can pose considerable challenges, as the long-range Coulomb interaction microscopically mingles with the competing states. Here we observe the signatures of the microemulsion between an electronic Wigner crystal and an electron liquid in a MoSe 2 monolayer using cryogenic reflectance and magneto-optical spectroscopy. We find that the transition into this microemulsion state is marked by anomalies in exciton reflectance, spin susceptibility and umklapp scattering, establishing it as a distinct phase of electronic matter.
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Sung, Jiho [Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000273904567), Wang, Jue [Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000168439771), Esterlis, Ilya [Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States); Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)], Volkov, Pavel A. [Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States); Univ. of Connecticut, Storrs, CT (United States)] (ORCID:0000000175869788), Scuri, Giovanni [Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States); Stanford Univ., CA (United States). E. L. Ginzton Laboratory] (ORCID:0000000310503114), Zhou, You [Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)] (ORCID:000000029854545X), Brutschea, Elise [Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000190967482), Taniguchi, Takashi [National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Tsukuba (Japan). Research Center for Functional Materials] (ORCID:0000000214673105), Watanabe, Kenji [National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Tsukuba (Japan). Research Center for Functional Materials] (ORCID:0000000337018119), Yang, Yubo [Flatiron Institute, New York, NY (United States). Center for Computational Quantum Physics] (ORCID:0000000288009426), Morales, Miguel A. [Flatiron Institute, New York, NY (United States). Center for Computational Quantum Physics], Zhang, Shiwei [Flatiron Institute, New York, NY (United States). Center for Computational Quantum Physics] (ORCID:000000019635170X), Millis, Andrew J. [Flatiron Institute, New York, NY (United States). Center for Computational Quantum Physics; Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)] (ORCID:0000000194136344), Lukin, Mikhail D. [Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000286581007), Kim, Philip [Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000282550086), Demler, Eugene [ETH Zürich (Switzerland). Institute for Theoretical Physics] (ORCID:000000022499632X), Park, Hongkun [Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000195768829). 2025-01-20. An electronic microemulsion phase emerging from a quantum crystal-to-liquid transition. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-024-02759-8
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