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Magnetoelectric effects and their coupling to light helicity are important for both fundamental science and applications in sensing, communication, and data storage. Traditional approaches based on conventional magnets require complex device architectures, involving separate spin-injection, ferromagnetic, and optically active layers. Recently, the emergence of 2D semiconductor moiré superlattices with flat Chern bands and strong light-matter interactions has established a simple yet powerful platform for exploring the coupling between photon, electron, and spin degrees of freedom. Here, we report efficient current control of spontaneous ferromagnetism and associated helicity of light emission in moiré MoTe2 bilayer – a system which hosts a rich variety of topological phases, including newly discovered zero-field fractional Chern insulators. We show that the current control is effective over a wide range of doping of the first moiré Chern band, implying the uniformity of the Berry curvature distribution over the flat band. By setting the system into the anomalous Hall metal phase, a current as small as 10nA is sufficient to switch the magnetic order, a substantial improvement over both conventional spin torque architectures and other moiré systems. The realized current control of ferromagnetism leads to continuous tuning of trion photoluminescence helicity from left to right circular via spin/valley Hall torque at zero magnetic field. Our results pave the way for topological opto-spintronics based on semiconductors with synthetic flat Chern bands.

Rights:

• Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 International
  

Keyword: magnetoelectric control
, moiré MoTe2, Chern magnet


Date published: 2025-08-27

Publisher: American Physical Society (APS)

Journal:

• Physical Review X (ISSN: 21603308) vol. 15 issue. 3 031057

Funding:

• U.S. Department of Energy
• Office of Science
• Basic Energy Sciences DE-SC0018171
• U.S. Department of Defense N000142512047
• U.S. Department of Defense DE-SC0012509
• National Science Foundation DGE-2140004
• National Science Foundation MRSEC DMR-1719797
• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science 21H05233
• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science 23H02052
• Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology JPMJCR24A5
• Japan Science and Technology Agency
• Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
• University of Washington
• World Premier International Research Center Initiative

Manuscript type: Publisher's version (Version of record)

MDR DOI:

First published URL: https://doi.org/10.1103/ds5p-763x

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Updated at: 2026-04-03 13:00:42 +0900

Published on MDR: 2026-04-03 16:27:42 +0900