Review of Orbital Magnetism in Graphene-Based Moiré Materials

Abstract

Recent years have seen the emergence of moiré materials as an attractive platform for observing a host of novel correlated and topological phenomena. Moiré heterostructures are generated when layers of van der Waals materials are stacked such that consecutive layers are slightly mismatched in their lattice orientation or unit cell size. This slight lattice mismatch gives rise to a long-wavelength moiré pattern that modulates the electronic structure and leads to novel physics. The moiré superlattice results in flat superlattice bands, electron–electron interactions and non-trivial topology that have led to the observation of superconductivity, the quantum anomalous Hall effect and orbital magnetization, among other interesting properties. This review focuses on the experimental observation and theoretical analysis of orbital magnetism in moiré materials. These systems are novel in their ability to host magnetism that is dominated by the orbital magnetic moment of Bloch electrons. This orbital magnetic moment is easily tunable using external electric fields and carrier concentration since it originates in the quantum anomalous Hall effect. As a result, the orbital magnetism found in moiré superlattices can be highly attractive for a wide array of applications including spintronics, ultra-low-power magnetic memories, spin-based neuromorphic computing and quantum information technology.