Terahertz linear/non-linear anomalous Hall conductivity of moiré TMD hetero-nanoribbons as topological valleytronics materials

Abstract Twisted moiré van der Waals heterostructures hold promise to provide a robust quantum simulation platform for strongly correlated materials and realize elusive states of matter such as topological states in the laboratory. We demonstrated that the moiré bands of twisted transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) hetero-nanoribbons exhibit non-trivial topological order due to the tendency of valence and conduction band states in K valleys to form giant band gaps when spin-orbit coupling (SOC) is taken into account. Among the features of twisted WS $$_2$$ 2 /MoS $$_2$$ 2 and WSe $$_2$$ 2 /MoSe $$_2$$ 2 , we found that the heavy fermions associated with the topological flat bands and the presence of strongly correlated states, enhance anomalous Hall conductivity (AHC) away from the magic angle. By band analysis, we showed that the topmost conduction bands from the ± K-valleys are perfectly flat and carry a spin/valley Chern number. Moreover, we showed that the non-linear anomalous Hall effect in moiré TMD hetero-nanoribbons can be used to manipulate terahertz (THz) radiation. Our findings establish twisted heterostructures of group-VI TMD nanoribbons as a tunable platform for engineering topological valley quantum phases and THz non-linear Hall conductivity.