Tunable Magnetic Interaction in Homobilayer Moiré TMDs

Transition metal dichalcogenide hetero- and homobilayer moiré systems have established themselves as a versatile platform for exploring Hubbard model physics. Their constituent monolayers are notable for a single spin-valley locked pseudospin degree of freedom. However, heterobilayer moiré systems intrinsically break the layer degree of freedom, and most TMDs transition from direct to indirect bandgap semiconductors in the bilayer, complicating homobilayer moiré physics. Here, we employ magneto-optical measurements to probe a near-AA stacked homobilayer MoTe₂ moiré system. Doping dependent photoluminescence reveals electric field tunable correlated states, and demonstrates the retention of a direct bandgap at the K and K’ points in bilayer. Additional magnetic circular dichroism measurements show signatures of tunable magnetic interactions. The behavior demonstrated via this suite of optical probes establishes moiré MoTe­₂ as a promising platform for observing correlated and topological physics.