DOE OSTI · 3025708
An exciton crystal in a moiré excitonic insulator
Abstract
Strong Coulomb interactions can drive electrons to crystallize into a Wigner lattice. Achieving the bosonic analogue—a crystal of excitons—has remained challenging owing to their short lifetimes and weaker interactions. Here we report the observation of a thermodynamically stable exciton crystal in an excitonic insulator coupled to a moiré potential. Using an electron–hole bilayer composed of a monolayer MoSe 2 and a WS 2 /WSe 2 moiré superlattice, we constructed a tunable extended Bose–Hubbard system with electrical control over exciton and charge doping in thermal equilibrium. Optical spectroscopy revealed spontaneous crystallization of long-lived excitons at one exciton filling per three moiré sites, manifested as strong Umklapp scattering peaks. Exciton transport measurements further showed a pronounced exciton resistance peak at the same filling. When doped away from net charge neutrality, this moiré electron–hole bilayer can host correlated insulating phases in which dipolar excitonic insulators form on top of the background of a hole Mott insulator or generalized Wigner crystals. In conclusion, these findings establish moiré electron–hole bilayers as a versatile platform for realizing correlated crystalline phases of bosons and fermions.
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Qi, Ruishi [University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0009000013051104), Li, Qize [University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0009000123520370), Kim, Haleem [University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)] (ORCID:000000032073029X), Nie, Jiahui [University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)], Zhang, Zuocheng [University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000178516101), Xia, Ruichen [University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)], Cui, Zhiyuan [University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)], Xiao, Jianghan [University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0009000283421478), Taniguchi, Takashi [National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Tsukuba (Japan)] (ORCID:0000000214673105), Watanabe, Kenji [National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Tsukuba (Japan)] (ORCID:0000000337018119), Crommie, Michael F. [University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000182463444), Wang, Feng [University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Kavli Energy NanoScience Institute, Berkeley, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000183696194). 2026-02-18. An exciton crystal in a moiré excitonic insulator. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-026-03184-9
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