Abstract
Flat bands in twisted graphene structures host various strongly correlated and topological phenomena. Optically probing and controlling them can reveal important information such as symmetry and dynamics, but this has been challenging due to the small energy gap compared with optical wavelengths. Here we report on the near-infrared optical control of orbital magnetism and associated anomalous Hall effects in a magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene on a monolayer WSe2 device. We demonstrate control over the hysteresis and amplitude of the anomalous Hall effect near integer moiré fillings using circularly polarized light. By modulating the light helicity, we observe periodic modulation of the transverse resistance in a wide range of fillings, indicating light-induced orbital magnetization through a large inverse Faraday effect. At the transition between metallic and anomalous Hall effect regimes, we also reveal large and random switching of the Hall resistivity, which we attribute to the light-tuned percolating cluster of magnetic domains. Our results demonstrate the potential of the optical manipulation of correlation and topology in moiré structures.
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The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Source data are provided with this paper.
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Acknowledgements
We thank S. Kivelson and F. Koppens for fruitful discussions. Work at Stanford University was supported by the US Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Basic Energy Science, Division of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford, under contract number DE-AC02-76SF00515. J.M.-M. was supported by a Stanford University startup fund. E.P. was partially supported by the Koret Foundation. Work at the University of Washington is supported by NSF MRSEC DMR-1719797.
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E.P. and A.K. conceived the investigation and designed the experiments. E.P. and L.P. performed the experiments. X.X., M.H. and J.C. fabricated the sample. J.M.-M. performed the tight-binding calculations. T.T. and K.W. grew the hexagonal boron nitride crystals. E.P. and A.K. wrote the paper, with contributions from all authors.
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Extended data
Extended Data Fig. 1 Transport properties without illumination.
Rxx measured as a function of the displacement field and the electron density at 300 mK.
Extended Data Fig. 2 Displacement field dependence of the AHE.
(a,b) The amplitude of the hysteresis loops, \(\Delta {R}_{xy}={R}_{xy}^{B\uparrow }-{R}_{xy}^{B\downarrow }\), plotted as a function of the displacement field for ν = 0.89 (a) and for ν = 1.88 (b). (c,d) representative hysteresis loops at different displacement fields.
Extended Data Fig. 3 Absence of layer polarization under displacement field.
Tight binding calculation showing the spin up and down bands at valley K of MATBG, for displacement fields of -0.3, 0 and 0.3 V/nm. Spin-orbit coupling from proximity to the WSe2 layer was included, resulting in spin-split bands. The colors represent the layer polarization of the corresponding wavefunctions. For displacement fields of ± 0.3 V/nm, the layer polarization is between ~ 0.45 and ~ 0.55 along the line cut. For no displacement field, layer polarization is between ~ 0.47 and ~ 0.53.
Extended Data Fig. 4 Longitudinal transport under illumination.
(a) Measurements of Rxx before and after illuminating the sample, showing that the effect of light is not persistent. (b) Rxx measured as a function of filling for different polarization. The thermal broadening of the correlated insulators is the same for all incident polarizations.
Extended Data Fig. 5 Power dependence of the IFE.
ΔRxy as a function of the half wave-plate orientation for various incident optical power, taken at 300 mK with ν = 1.3 and D = 0 V/nm. The data show a slight increase in the oscillation amplitude as a function of the power.
Extended Data Fig. 6 Relationship between the IFE and the AHE.
(a) A hysteresis loop taken at ν = 0.95 under illumination. (b-e) ΔRxy as a function of the half wave-plate orientation, taken at different points along the hysteresis loop in a. The oscillations were smaller at fields where Rxy was saturated.
Extended Data Fig. 7 Absence of IFE far from the AHE regime.
ΔRxy as a function of the half wave-plate orientation near (a) and far away (b) from ν = 1.
Supplementary information
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Supplementary Sections 1–3, equations (1)–(27) and Fig. 1.
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Persky, E., Parisot, L., He, M. et al. Optical control of orbital magnetism in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene. Nat. Phys. 22, 39–46 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-03117-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-03117-y
