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Quantum point contacts (QPCs) are cornerstones of mesoscopic physics and central building blocks for quantum electronics. Although the Fermi wave-length in high-quality bulk graphene can be tuned up to hundreds of nanometers, the observation of quantum confinement of Dirac electrons in nanostructured graphene systems has proven surprisingly challenging. Here we show ballistic transport and quantized conductance of size-confined Dirac fermions in lithographically-defined graphene constrictions. At high charge carrier densities, the observed conductance agrees excellently with the Landauer theory of ballistic transport without any adjustable parameter. Experimental data and simulations for the evolution of the conductance with magnetic field unambiguously confirm the identification of size quantization in the constriction. Close to the charge neutrality point, bias voltage spectroscopy reveals a renormalized Fermi velocity ($v_F approx 1.5 times 10^6 m/s$) in our graphene constrictions. Moreover, at low carrier density transport measurements allow probing the density of localized states at edges, thus offering a unique handle on edge physics in graphene devices.
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The recent theoretical prediction and experimental realization of topological insulators (TI) has generated intense interest in this new state of quantum matter. The surface states of a three-dimensional (3D) TI such as Bi_2Te_3, Bi_2Se_3 and Sb_2Te_3 consist of a single massless Dirac cones. Crossing of the two surface state branches with opposite spins in the materials is fully protected by the time reversal (TR) symmetry at the Dirac points, which cannot be destroyed by any TR invariant perturbation. Recent advances in thin-film growth have permitted this unique two-dimensional electron system (2DES) to be probed by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS). The intriguing TR symmetry protected topological states were revealed in STM experiments where the backscattering induced by non-magnetic impurities was forbidden. Here we report the Landau quantization of the topological surface states in Bi_2Se_3 in magnetic field by using STM/STS. The direct observation of the discrete Landau levels (LLs) strongly supports the 2D nature of the topological states and gives direct proof of the nondegenerate structure of LLs in TI. We demonstrate the linear dispersion of the massless Dirac fermions by the square-root dependence of LLs on magnetic field. The formation of LLs implies the high mobility of the 2DES, which has been predicted to lead to topological magneto-electric effect of the TI.
We theoretically study the Dirac fermion dynamics in a graphene monolayer in the presence of an applied ultrafast laser pulse. The pulse has the duration of a few femtoseconds and the amplitude of ~ 0.1 - 0.5 $mathrm{V/AA}$. The waveform of the pulse is described by Hermit Gaussian polynomials with varying carrier-envelope phase. We show that the ultrafast dynamics of Dirac fermions strongly depends on the carrier-envelope phase and the frequency of the applied pulse. The ultrafast pulse generates an electric current which results in a finite transferred charge. The ultrafast field-driven current and the corresponding net transferred charge depend on the waveform of the applied pulse. Our results pave the way for the development of ultrafast information processing in the terahertz domain.
Bilayer graphene is a highly promising material for electronic and optoelectronic applications since it is supporting massive Dirac fermions with a tuneable band gap. However, no consistent picture of the gaps effect on the optical and transport behavior has emerged so far, and it has been proposed that the insulating nature of the gap could be compromised by unavoidable structural defects, by topological in-gap states, or that the electronic structure could be altogether changed by many-body effects. Here we directly follow the excited carriers in bilayer graphene on a femtosecond time scale, using ultrafast time- and angle-resolved photoemission. We find a behavior consistent with a single-particle band gap. Compared to monolayer graphene, the existence of this band gap leads to an increased carrier lifetime in the minimum of the lowest conduction band. This is in sharp contrast to the second sub-state of the conduction band, in which the excited electrons decay through fast, phonon-assisted inter-band transitions.
Massless Dirac fermions in graphene can acquire a mass through different kinds of sublattice-symmetry-breaking perturbations, and there is a growing need to determine this mass using a conventional method. We describe how the mass caused by a staggered sublattice potential is determined using Raman spectroscopy and explain the mechanism in terms of the pseudospin polarization of massive Dirac fermions.
We present measurements on side gated graphene constrictions of different geometries. We characterize the transport gap by its width in back gate voltage and compare this to an analysis based on Coulomb blockade measurements of localized states. We study the effect of an applied side gate voltage on the transport gap and show that high side gate voltages lift the suppression of the conductance. Finally we study the effect of an applied magnetic field and demonstrate the presence of edge states in the constriction.
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