Spatiotemporal dynamics of moiré excitons in van der Waals heterostructures

Abstract

Heterostructures of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) offer unique opportunities in optoelectronics due to their strong light-matter interaction and the formation of dipolar interlayer excitons. Introducing a twist angle or lattice mismatch between layers creates a periodic moiré potential that significantly reshapes the energy landscape and introduces a high-dimensional complexity absent in aligned bilayers. Recent experimental advances have enabled direct observation and control of interlayer excitons in such moiré-patterned systems, yet a microscopic theoretical framework capturing both their thermalization and spatiotemporal dynamics remains lacking. Here, we address this challenge by developing a predictive, material-specific many-body model that tracks exciton dynamics across time, space, and momentum, fully accounting for the moiré potential and the complex non-parabolic exciton band structure. Surprisingly, we reveal that flat bands, which typically trap excitons, can significantly enhance exciton propagation. This counterintuitive behavior emerges from the interplay between the flat-band structure giving rise to a bottleneck effect for exciton relaxation and thermal occupation dynamics creating hot excitons. Our work not only reveals the microscopic mechanisms behind the enhanced propagation but also enables the control of exciton transport via twist-angle engineering. These insights lay the foundation for next-generation moiré-based optoelectronic and quantum technologies.