No Arabic abstract
Electron-electron interactions play a critical role in many condensed matter phenomena, and it is tempting to find a way to control them by changing the interactions strength. One possible approach is to place a studied system in proximity of a metal, which induces additional screening and hence suppresses electron interactions. Here, using devices with atomically-thin gate dielectrics and atomically-flat metallic gates, we measure the electron-electron scattering length in graphene and report qualitative deviations from the standard behavior. The changes induced by screening become important only at gate dielectric thicknesses of a few nm, much smaller than a typical separation between electrons. Our theoretical analysis agrees well with the scattering rates extracted from measurements of electron viscosity in monolayer graphene and of umklapp electron-electron scattering in graphene superlattices. The results provide a guidance for future attempts to achieve proximity screening of many-body phenomena in two-dimensional systems.
We investigate the magnetotransport in large area graphene Hall bars epitaxially grown on silicon carbide. In the intermediate field regime between weak localization and Landau quantization the observed temperature-dependent parabolic magnetoresistivity (MR) is a manifestation of the electron-electron interaction (EEI). We can consistently describe the data with a model for diffusive (magneto)transport that also includes magnetic-field dependent effects originating from ballistic time scales. We find an excellent agreement between the experimentally observed temperature dependence of MR and the theory of EEI in the diffusive regime. We can further assign a temperature-driven crossover to the reduction of the multiplet modes contributing to EEI from 7 to 3 due to intervalley scattering. In addition, we find a temperature independent ballistic contribution to the MR in classically strong magnetic fields.
We investigate coherent electron dynamics in graphene, interacting with the electric field waveform of two orthogonally polarized, few-cycle laser pulses. Recently, we demonstrated that linearly polarized driving pulses lead to sub-optical-cycle Landau-Zener quantum path interference by virtue of the combination of intraband motion and interband transition [Higuchi $textit{et al.}$, Nature $textbf{550}$, 224 (2017)]. Here we introduce a pulsed control laser beam, orthogonally polarized to the driving pulses, and observe the ensuing electron dynamics. The relative delay between the two pulses is a tuning parameter to control the electron trajectory, now in a complex fashion exploring the full two-dimensional reciprocal space in graphene. Depending on the relative phase, the electron trajectory in the reciprocal space can, for example, be deformed to suppress the quantum path interference resulting from the driving laser pulse. Intriguingly, this strong-field-based complex matter wave manipulation in a two-dimensional conductor is driven by a high repetition rate textit{laser oscillator}, rendering unnecessary complex and expensive amplified laser systems.
Single-layer graphene sheets are typically characterized by long-wavelength corrugations (ripples) which can be shown to be at the origin of rather strong potentials with both scalar and vector components. We present an extensive microscopic study, based on a self-consistent Kohn-Sham-Dirac density-functional method, of the carrier density distribution in the presence of these ripple-induced external fields. We find that spatial density fluctuations are essentially controlled by the scalar component, especially in nearly-neutral graphene sheets, and that in-plane atomic displacements are as important as out-of-plane ones. The latter fact is at the origin of a complicated spatial distribution of electron-hole puddles which has no evident correlation with the out-of-plane topographic corrugations. In the range of parameters we have explored, exchange and correlation contributions to the Kohn-Sham potential seem to play a minor role.
The search of new means of generating and controlling topological states of matter is at the front of many joint efforts, including bandgap engineering by doping and light-induced topological states. Most of our understading, however, is based on a single particle picture. Topological states in systems including interaction effects, such as electron-electron and electron-phonon, remain less explored. By exploiting a non-perturbative and non-adiabatic picture, here we show how the interaction between electrons and a coherent phonon mode can lead to a bandgap hosting edge states of topological origin. Further numerical simulations witness the robustness of these states against different types of disorder. Our results contribute to the search of topological states, in this case in a minimal Fock space.
We discuss valley current, which is carried by quasiparticles in graphene. We show that the valley current arises owing to a peculiar term in the electron-phonon collision integral that mixes the scalar and vector gauge-field-like vertices in the electron-phonon interaction. This mixing makes collisions of phonons with electrons sensitive to their chirality, which is opposite in two valleys. As a result of collisions with phonons, electrons of the different valleys deviate in opposite directions. Breaking the spatial inversion symmetry is not needed for a valley-dependent deviation of the quasiparticle current. The effect exists both in pristine graphene or bilayer graphene samples, and it increases with temperature owing to a higher rate of collisions with phonons at higher temperatures. The valley current carried by quasiparticles could be detected by measuring the electric current using a nonlocal transformer of a suitable design.