arXiv · 2608.05308
Topological Charge-Transfer Excitons
Abstract
Excitons possess internal structure absent from single-particle Bloch particles, allowing their band topology to emerge from the bound-state structure rather than being inherited from their constituents. This raises the question of how the internal structure of a bound state can provide a microscopic origin of exciton topology. Here we show that the real-space embedding of charge-transfer excitons can generate an intrinsic manifold of symmetry-related off-site composite orbitals whose coupling supports topological exciton bands. Lateral electron-hole separation embeds the localized exciton on the bond connecting its constituent sites rather than on either site. We demonstrate this mechanism in a honeycomb lattice, where three bond-centered charge-transfer exciton orbitals form a Kagome lattice. By solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation, we show that this emergent multi-orbital manifold supports a topological exciton flat band upon time-reversal symmetry breaking, even when the electron and hole bands are topologically trivial. The resulting band exhibits nearly uniformly distributed quantum geometry, favorable for interaction-driven bosonic states. Our results establish a general route toward topological bands of localized composite bound states and unconventional strongly correlated bosonic phases.
Explore related subjects
Keep this discovery
Huiyuan Zheng, Kaijie Yang, Ting Cao, Di Xiao. 2026-08-05. Topological Charge-Transfer Excitons. https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.05308
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.