Magnetic field-induced chiral spin liquids on the twisted transition-metal dichalcogenide moiré system

Recent studies on the twisted transition-metal dichalcogenide heterobilayers and homonbilayers have demonstrated a desired platform to simulate Hubbard model physics with wide tunability through the twisted angle. We focus on the heterobilayer where the SU(2) symmetry is retained in the valley (spin) space, and investigate the Mott insulating phase at half filling approximated by a two-dimensional triangular Heisenberg model subject to a magnetic field. Interestingly, for intermediate fields a chiral spin liquid phase is observed before the transition to the partially polarized phase, due to an effective three-spin chiral interaction that are induced by the magnetic field. We further characterize the topological nature of the chiral spin liquid as the ν = 1/2 SU(2)₁ Laughlin type, and map out the quantum phase diagram for different twist angles.