Oral: Spectroscopic evidence of electron interactions in rhombohedral trilayer graphene

ORAL

Abstract

Rhombohedral trilayer graphene (RTG), characterized by multiple internal degrees of freedom, exhibits a variety of isospin symmetry-broken states and superconducting phases1. In this study, we demonstrate that stacking a monolayer graphene on top of a Bernal bilayer graphene with a small twist angle results in well-defined domains with ABC-stacking orders2. We observe various gate-tunable, layer-polarized states across ABA, ABC and domain wall regions. Using scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, we map the phase diagram of the RTG and identify a sequence of symmetry-broken metallic states that emerge while filling the flat band, including inter-valley coherent and half-metal phases. These findings provide insights into the correlated spectroscopic characteristics of single-gated RTG device, establishing a benchmark for future studies on phase transitions in this system.

Reference

1. Zhou, H., Xie, T., Ghazaryan, A., Holder, T., Ehrets, J. R., Spanton, E. M., Taniguchi, T., Watanabe, K., Berg, E., Serbyn, M. & Young, A. F. Half- and quarter-metals in rhombohedral trilayer graphene. Nature 598, 429–433 (2021).

2. Kerelsky, A., Rubio-Verdú, C., Xian, L., Kennes, D. M., Halbertal, D., Finney, N., Song, L., Turkel, S., Wang, L., Watanabe, K., Taniguchi, T., Hone, J., Dean, C., Basov, D. N., Rubio, A. & Pasupathy, A. N. Moiréless correlations in ABCA graphene. P. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 118, e2017366118 (2021).

*This work was primarily supported by the BSF (Grant Numbers 2022272). Work at UCSB was primarily supported by the National Science Foundation under award DMR-2226850, with additional support provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation under award GBMF9471. The work also made use of shared equipment sponsored by the National Science Foundation through Enabling Quantum Leap: Convergent Accelerated Discovery Foundries for Quantum Materials Science, Engineering and Information (Q-AMASE-i) award number DMR-1906325. K.W. and T.T. acknowledge support from the JSPS KAKENHI (Grant Numbers 21H05233 and 23H02052) and World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI), MEXT, Japan.

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Presenters

  • Yiwen Liu

    • Weizmann Institute of Science

Authors

  • Yiwen Liu

    • Weizmann Institute of Science

  • Ambikesh Gupta

    • Weizmann Institute of Science

  • Youngjoon Choi

    • University of California Santa Barbara
    • University of California at Santa Barbara

  • Yaar Vituri

    • Weizmann Institute of Science

  • Hari Stoyanov

    • University of California at Santa Barbara
    • UCSB

  • Jiewen Xiao

    • Weizmann Institute of Science

  • Yanzhen Wang

    • Weizmann Institute of Science

  • Haibiao Zhou

    • Weizmann Institute of Science

  • Barun Barick

    • Weizmann Institute of Science

  • Takashi Taniguchi

    • National Institute for Materials Science
    • International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science
    • Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba 305-0044, Japan
    • International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute of Material Science, Tsukuba, Japan
    • Advanced Materials Laboratory, National Institute for Materials Science

  • Kenji Watanabe

    • National Institute for Materials Science
    • NIMS
    • Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute for Materials Science
    • Research Center for Electronic and Optical Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba 305-0044, Japan
    • Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute of Material Science, Tsukuba, Japan
    • National Institute of Materials Science
    • Advanced Materials Laboratory, National Institute for Materials Science

  • Binghai Yan

    • Weizmann Institute of Science

  • Erez Berg

    • Weizmann Institute of Science

  • Andrea F Young

    • University of California, Santa Barbara
    • University of California Santa Barbara
    • University of California at Santa Barbara

  • Haim Beidenkopf

    • Weizmann Institute of Science

  • Nurit Avraham

    • Weizmann Institute of Science