Frustrated magnetic interactions in a Wigner-Mott insulator

Abstract

Two-dimensional semiconductor moir\'e materials have emerged as a highly controllable platform to simulate and explore quantum condensed matter. Compared to real solids, electrons in semiconductor moir\'e materials are less strongly attracted to the moir\'e lattice sites, making the nonlocal contributions to the magnetic interactions as important as the Anderson super-exchange. It provides a unique platform to study the effects of competing magnetic interactions. Here, we report the observation of strongly frustrated magnetic interactions in a Wigner-Mott insulating state at 2/3 filling of the moir\'e lattice in angle-aligned WSe2/WS2 heterobilayers. Magneto-optical measurements show that the net exchange interaction is antiferromagnetic for filling factors below 1 with a strong suppression at 2/3 filling. The suppression is lifted upon screening of the long-range Coulomb interactions and melting of the Wigner-Mott insulator by a nearby metallic gate. The results can be qualitatively captured by a honeycomb-lattice spin model with an antiferromagnetic nearest-neighbor coupling and a ferromagnetic second-neighbor coupling. Our study establishes semiconductor moir\'e materials as a model system for the lattice-spin physics and frustrated magnetism.