Quantum melting of generalized electron crystal in twisted bilayer MoSe2

Qi Jun Zong; Haolin Wang; Qi Zhang; Xinle Cheng; Yangchen He; Qiaoling Xu; Ammon Fischer; Kenji Watanabe; Takashi Taniguchi; Daniel A. Rhodes; Lede Xian; Dante M. Kennes; Angel Rubio; Geliang Yu; Lei Wang

doi:10.1038/s41467-025-59365-2

Journal article Quantum melting of generalized electron crystal in twisted bilayer MoSe2

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Qi Jun Zong, Haolin Wang, Qi Zhang, Xinle Cheng, Yangchen He, Qiaoling Xu, Ammon Fischer, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Daniel A. Rhodes, Lede Xian, Dante M. Kennes, Angel Rubio, Geliang Yu, Lei Wang. Quantum melting of generalized electron crystal in twisted bilayer MoSe2. Nature Communications. 2025, 16 (), 4058. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-59365-2

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Electrons can form an ordered solid crystal phase ascribed to the interplay between Coulomb repulsion and kinetic energy [1, 2]. Tuning these energy scales can drive a phase transition from electron solid to liquid, i.e. quantum melting of a Wigner crystal [3–6]. Two-dimensional moiré superlattices have become a fertile platform to observe generalized Wigner crystals [7, 8], which have so far been studied by optical [9–11] and scanning-probe-based methods [12–16] in p-type transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). Using transport measurements to investigate Wigner states is vital to a complete characterization, however, it still poses a significant challenge due to problems in making reliable electrical contacts, particularly difficult for n-type materials like MoSe2. Here, we report the electrical transport observation of generalized Wigner crystal states at ν = 2/5, 1/2, 3/5, and 2/3 electron fillings of a moiré unit cell in twisted bilayer MoSe2. We find that these states are spin-polarized and that with the application of an out-of-plane magnetic field, additional states emerge at 8/9, 10/9, and 4/3 fillings. We further observe that these generalized Wigner crystal states can undergo continuous quantum melting transitions to liquid phases, manifested by a quantum critical scaling behaviors. The Mott state at ν = 1 exhibits different transition behaviors, which is associated with Pomeranchuk effect. Our findings establish twisted bilayer MoSe2 as a novel system to study strongly correlated states of matter and their quantum phase transitions.

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