Coulomb effects on topological band inversion in the moiré of WSe2/BAs heterobilayer

Abstract

Quantum spin Hall (QSH) insulator with large gap is highly desirable for potential spintronics application. Here we realize electrically tunable QSH insulator with large gap in van der Waals heterobilayer of monolayer transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) and hexagonal boron arsenide (BAs), in particular the WSe2/BAs heterobilayer. When the type II band alignment gets inverted in an electric field, the hybridization by interlayer hopping between the spin-valley locked valence band edges in TMD and the BAs conduction band edges leads to a stacking-configuration dependent topological band inversion. In the non-interacting limit, the double spin degeneracy of BAs leaves an un-hybridized conduction band inside the gap, so the heterobilayer is a spin-valley locked metal instead of a QSH insulator. With the Coulomb interaction accounted in the double-layer geometry, the interaction with the hybridization induced electric dipole shifts this un-hybridized conduction band upwards in energy, giving rise to a sizable global QSH gap. Consequently, this heterobilayer provides a platform for engineering electrically tunable QSH insulator with sizable band gap. In the long-period moiré pattern with the spatial variation of local stacking-configurations, the competition between Coulomb interaction and interlayer hopping leads to superstructures of QSH insulators and excitonic insulators.