No Arabic abstract
Rhombohedral multilayer graphene is a physical realization of the chiral two-dimensional electron gas that can host zero-line modes (ZLMs), also known as kink states, when the local ap opened by inversion symmetry breaking potential changes sign in real space. Here we study how the variations in the local stacking coordination of multilayer graphene affects the formation of the ZLMs. Our analysis indicates that the valley Hall effect develops whenever an interlayer potential difference is able to open up a band gap in stacking faulted multilayer graphene, and that ZLMs can appear at the domain walls separating two distinct regions with imperfect rhombohedral stacking configurations. Based on a tight-binding formulation with distant hopping terms between carbon atoms, we first show that topologically distinct domains characterized by the valley Chern number are separated by a metallic region connecting AA and AA$$ stacking line in the layer translation vector space. We find that gapless states appear at the interface between the two stacking faulted domains with different layer translation or with opposite perpendicular electric field if their valley Chern numbers are different.
We theoretically investigate a folded bilayer graphene structure as an experimentally realizable platform to produce the one-dimensional topological zero-line modes. We demonstrate that the folded bilayer graphene under an external gate potential enables tunable topologically conducting channels to be formed in the folded region, and that a perpendicular magnetic field can be used to enhance the conducting when external impurities are present. We also show experimentally that our proposed folded bilayer graphene structure can be fabricated in a controllable manner. Our proposed system greatly simplifies the technical difficulty in the original proposal by considering a planar bilayer graphene (i.e., precisely manipulating the alignment between vertical and lateral gates on bilayer graphene), laying out a new strategy in designing practical low-power electronics by utilizing the gate induced topological conducting channels.
Domain walls, topological defects that define the frontier between regions of different stacking in multilayer graphene, have proved to host exciting physics. The ability of tuning these topological defects in-situ in an electronic transport experiment brings a wealth of possibilities in terms of fundamental understanding of domain walls as well as for electronic applications. Here, we demonstrate through a MEMS (micro-electromechanical system) actuator and magnetoresistance measurements the effect of domain walls in multilayer graphene quantum Hall effect. Reversible and controlled uniaxial strain triggers these topological defects, manifested as new quantum Hall effect plateaus as well as a discrete and reversible modulation of the current across the device. Our findings are supported by theoretical calculations and constitute the first indication of the in-situ tuning of topological defects in multilayer graphene probed through electronic transport, opening the way to the use of reversible topological defects in electronic applications.
We show that a domain wall separating single layer graphene (SLG) and AA-stacked bilayer graphene (AA-BLG) can be used to generate highly collimated electron beams which can be steered by a magnetic field. Such system exists in two distinct configurations, namely, locally delaminated AA-BLG and terminated AA-BLG whose terminal edge-type can be either zigzag or armchair. We investigate the electron scattering using semi-classical dynamics and verify the results independently with wave-packed dynamics simulations. We find that the proposed system supports two distinct types of collimated beams that correspond to the lower and upper cones in AA-BLG. Our computational results also reveal that collimation is robust against the number of layers connected to AA-BLG and terminal edges.
We report the growth of thickness-controlled rotationally faulted multilayer graphene (rf-MLG) on Ni foils by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition and their characterization by micro-Raman spectroscopy. The surface morphology and thickness were investigated by scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffraction, and transmittance measurements. These results have revealed that the thickness of rf-MLG can be effectively controlled by the thickness of the Ni foil rather than the flow rate of CH$_4$, H$_2$, Ar. In the Raman spectroscopy measurements, we observed most Raman peaks of the graphitic materials. Raman spectra can be categorized into four patterns and show systematic behaviors. Especially, the in-plane (~1880 cm$^{-1}$, ~2035 cm$^{-1}$) and out-of-plane (~1750 cm$^{-1}$) modes are successfully analyzed to explain the dimensionality of rf-MLG as in the twisted (or rotated) bilayer graphene. In addition, it is found that the two peaks at ~1230 cm$^{-1}$ and ~2220 cm$^{-1}$ well reflect the properties of the in-plane mode. The peak intensities of the above four in-plane modes are proportional to that of 2D band, indicating that they share the common Raman resonance process.
One-dimensional (1D) graphene superlattices have been predicted to exhibit zero-energy modes a decade ago, but an experimental proof has remained missing. Motivated by a recent experiment that could possibly shed light on this, here we perform quantum transport simulations for 1D graphene superlattices, considering electrostatically simulated potential profiles as realistic as possible. Combined with the analysis on the corresponding miniband structures, we find that the zero modes generated by the 1D superlattice potential can be further cloned to higher energies, which are also accessible by tuning the average density. Our multiterminal transverse magnetic focusing simulations further reveal the modulation-controllable ballistic miniband transport for 1D graphene superlattices. A simple idea for creating a perfectly symmetric periodic potential with strong modulation is proposed at the end of this work, generating well aligned zero modes up to 6 within a reasonable gate strength.