Orbital textures and evolution of correlated insulating state in monolayer 1T phase transition metal dichalcogenides

Strong electron-electron interaction can induce Mott insulating state, which is believed to host unusual correlated phenomena such as quantum spin liquid when quantum fluctuation dominates and unconventional superconductivity through doping. Transition metal compounds as correlated materials provide a versatile platform to engineer the Mott insulating state. Previous studies mostly focused on the controlling of the repulsive interaction and bandwidth of the electrons by gating or doping. Here, we performed angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) on monolayer 1T phase NbSe2, TaSe2, and TaS2 and directly observed their band structures with characteristic lower Hubbard bands. By systematically investigating the orbital textures and temperature dependence of the energy gap of the materials in this family, we discovered that hybridization of the chalcogen p states with lower Hubbard band stabilizes the Mott phase via tuning of the bandwidth, as shown by a significant increase of the transition temperature (TC) at a stronger hybridization strength. Our findings reveal a mechanism for realizing a robust Mott insulating phase and establish monolayer 1T phase transition metal dichalcogenide family as a promising platform for exploring correlated electron problems.