Long-lived isospin excitations in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene.

Abstract

Numerous correlated many-body phases, both conventional and exotic, have been reported in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (MATBG)1-24. However, the dynamics associated with these correlated states, crucial for understanding the underlying physics, remain unexplored. Here we combine exciton sensing and optical pump-probe spectroscopy to investigate the dynamics of isospin orders in MATBG with WSe2 substrate across the entire flat band, achieving sub-picosecond resolution. We observe remarkably slow isospin dynamics in a broad filling range around ν = 2 and between ν = -3 and -2, with lifetimes of up to 300 ps that decouple from the much faster cooling of electronic temperature (about 10 ps). This non-thermal behaviour demonstrates the presence of abnormally long-lived modes in the isospin degrees of freedom. This observation, not anticipated by theory, implies the existence of long-range propagating collective modes, strong isospin fluctuations and memory effects and is probably associated with an intervalley coherent or incommensurate Kekulé spiral ground state. We further demonstrate non-equilibrium control of the isospin orders previously found around integer fillings. Specifically, through ultrafast manipulation, it can be transiently shifted away from integer fillings. Our study demonstrates a unique probe of collective excitations in MATBG and paves the way for actively controlling non-equilibrium phenomena in moiré systems.