Hysteresis and anomalous gate screening in aligned graphene/BN systems

ORAL

Abstract

Moiré potentials in few-layer graphene aligned to boron nitride (BN) can generate a variety of emergent physical phenomena. As a prominent recent example, anomalous gate screening and hysteresis of the electrical resistance have been observed in bilayer graphene aligned to BN [1]. However, the mechanism underlying this effect and the precise role of the moiré potential remain unclear. In this work, we perform a systematic study of few-layer graphene devices in which we control the alignment of both the top and bottom BN with the graphene. We probe the role of the moiré potential by surveying all possible BN/graphene/BN alignment configurations, distinguishing between and alignment using Raman spectroscopy and second harmonic generation. We find that the hysteresis persists above room temperature, calling into question the role of correlations in establishing this effect. Our work is a significant step towards both understanding the nature of this phenomenon and implementing these devices for useful electronics applications.



1) Z. Zheng, et al., Nature, 588, 71–76 (2020)

*This research was supported by an appointment to the Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program at University of Washington administered by Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) through an interagency agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).

Presenters

  • Dacen Waters

    • University of Washington

Authors

  • Dacen Waters

    • University of Washington
  • Ellis Thompson

    • University of Washington
  • Esmeralda Arreguin-Martinez

    • University of Washington
    • University Of Washington
  • Anna Okounkova

    • University of Washington
  • Jordan M Fonseca

    • University of Washington
  • Kenji Watanabe

    • National Institute for Materials Science
    • Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute of Materials Science
    • Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba 305-044, Japan
    • NIMS
    • Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute for Materials Science
    • National Institute for Materials Science, Japan
    • Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan
    • NIMS Japan
  • Takashi Taniguchi

    • National Institute for Materials Science
    • Kyoto Univ
    • International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute of Materials Science
    • Kyoto University
    • International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba 305-044, Japan
    • International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science
    • National Institute for Materials Science, Japan
    • National Institute For Materials Science
    • NIMS
    • National Institute for Material Science
    • International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan
    • NIMS Japan
  • Xiaodong Xu

    • University of Washington
  • Matthew A Yankowitz

    • University of Washington