Intrinsic Dipole Hall effect in twisted MoTe$_2$: magnetoelectricity and contact-free signatures of topological transitions

Abstract

We discover an intrinsic dipole Hall effect in a variety of magnetic insulating states at integer fillings of twisted MoTe$_2$ moir\'e superlattice, including topologically trivial and nontrivial ferro-, antiferro-, and ferri-magnetic configurations. The dipole Hall current, in linear response to in-plane electric field, generates an in-plane orbital magnetization $M_{\parallel}$ along the field, through which an AC field can drive magnetization oscillation up to THz range. Upon the continuous topological phase transitions from trivial to quantum anomalous Hall states in both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic configurations, the dipole Hall current and $M_{\parallel}$ have an abrupt sign change, enabling contact free detection of the transitions through the magnetic stray field. In configurations where the linear response is forbidden by symmetry, the dipole Hall current and $M_{\parallel}$ appear as a crossed nonlinear response to both in-plane and out-of-plane electric fields. These magnetoelectric phenomena showcase novel functionalities of insulators from the interplay between magnetism, topology and electrical polarization.