Perfect Coulomb drag in a dipolar excitonic insulator

Abstract

Excitonic insulators (EIs), arising in semiconductors when the electron-hole binding energy exceeds the band gap, are a solid-state prototype for bosonic phases of matter. Unlike the charged excitations that are frozen and unable to transport current, the neutral electron-hole pairs (excitons) are free to move in EIs. However, it is intrinsically difficult to demonstrate exciton transport in bulk EI candidates. The recently emerged dipolar EIs based on Coulomb-coupled atomic double layers open the possibility to realize exciton transport across the insulator because separate electrical contacts can be made to the electron and hole layers. Here we show that the strong interlayer excitonic correlation at equal electron and hole densities in the MoSe2/WSe2 double layers separated by a 2-nm barrier gives rise to perfect Coulomb drag. A charge current in one layer induces an equal but opposite drag current in the other. The drag current ratio remains above 0.9 up to about 20 K for low exciton densities. As exciton density increases above the Mott density, the excitons dissociate into the electron-hole plasma abruptly, and only weak Fermi liquid frictional drag is observed. Our experiment moves a step closer to realizing exciton circuitry and superfluidity.