Moiré Engineering of Spin-Orbit Coupling in Twisted Platinum Diselenide

Abstract: We study the electronic structure and correlated phases of twisted bilayers of platinum diselenide using large-scale ab initio simulations combined with the functional renormalization group. PtSe$_2$ is a group-X transition metal dichalcogenide, which hosts emergent flat bands at small twist angles in the twisted bilayer. Remarkably, we find that moir\'e engineering can be used to tune the strength of Rashba spin-orbit interactions, altering the electronic behavior in a novel manner. We reveal that an effective triangular lattice with a twist-controlled ratio between kinetic and spin-orbit coupling scales can be realized. Even dominant spin-orbit coupling can be accessed in this way and we discuss consequences for the interaction driven phase diagram, which features pronounced exotic superconducting and entangled spin-charge density waves.