Electronic states on the surface of graphite

Graphite consists of graphene layers in an AB (Bernal) stacking arrangement. The introduction of defects can reduce the coupling between the top graphene layers and the bulk crystal producing new electronic states that reflect the degree of coupling. We employ low temperature high magnetic field scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS) to access these states and study their evolution with the degree of coupling. STS in magnetic field directly probes the dimensionality of electronic states. Thus two-dimensional states produce a discrete series of Landau levels while three-dimensional states form Landau bands providing a clear distinction between completely decoupled top layers and ones that are coupled to the substrate. We show that the completely decoupled layers are characterized by a single sequence of Landau levels with square-root dependence on field and level index indicative of massless Dirac fermions. In contrast weakly coupled bilayers produce special sequences reflecting the degree of coupling, and multilayers produce sequences reflecting the coexistence of massless and massive Dirac fermions. In addition we show that the graphite surface is soft and that an STM tip can be quite invasive when brought too close to the surface and that there is a characteristic tip-sample distance beyond which the effect of sample-tip interaction is negligible.     

Broken-symmetry states of Dirac fermions in graphene with a partially filled high Landau level

We report on numerical study of the Dirac fermions in partially filled N=3 Landau level (LL) in graphene. At half-filling, the equal-time density-density correlation function displays sharp peaks at nonzero wave vectors +/-q*. Finite-size scaling shows that the peak value grows with electron number and diverges in the thermodynamic limit, which suggests an instability toward a charge density wave. A symmetry broken stripe phase is formed at large system size limit, which is robust against perturbation from disorder scattering. Such a quantum phase is experimentally observable through transport measurements. Associated with the special wave functions of the Dirac LL, both stripe and bubble phases become possible candidates for the ground state of the Dirac fermions in graphene with lower filling factors in the N=3 LL.     

Graphene-like physics in optical lattices

Graphene has attracted enormous attention over the past years in condensed matter physics. The most interesting feature of graphene is that its low-energy excitations are relativistic Dirac fermions. Such feature is the origin of many topological properties in graphene-like physics. On the other hand, ultracold quantum gas trapped in an optical lattice has become a unique setting for quantum simulation of condensed matter physics. Here, we mainly review our recent work on quantum simulation of graphene-like physics with ultracold atoms trapped in a honeycomb or square optical lattice, including the simulation of Dirac fermions and quantum Hall effect with and without Landau levels. We also present the related experimental advances.     

Theory of magnetic oscillations in Weyl semimetals

Weyl semimetals are a new class of Dirac material that possesses bulk energy nodes in three dimensions, in contrast to two dimensional graphene. In this paper, we study a Weyl semimetal subject to an applied magnetic field. We find distinct behavior that can be used to identify materials containing three dimensional Dirac fermions. We derive expressions for the density of states, electronic specific heat, and the magnetization. We focus our attention on the quantum oscillations in the magnetization. We find phase shifts in the quantum oscillations that distinguish the Weyl semimetal from conventional three dimensional Schrödinger fermions, as well as from two dimensional Dirac fermions. The density of states as a function of energy displays a sawtooth pattern which has its origin in the dispersion of the three dimensional Landau levels. At the same time, the spacing in energy of the sawtooth spike goes like the square root of the applied magnetic field which reflects the Dirac nature of the fermions. These features are reflected in the specific heat and magnetization. Finally, we apply a simple model for disorder and show that this tends to damp out the magnetic oscillations in the magnetization at small fields.     

Scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy of graphene layers on graphite

We report low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy on graphene flakes supported on a graphite substrate. The experiments demonstrate that graphite is exceptionally well suited as a substrate for graphene because it offers support without disturbing the intrinsic properties of the charge carriers. The degree of coupling of a graphene flake to the substrate was recognized and characterized from the appearance of an anomalous Landau level sequence in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field. By following the evolution of the Landau level spectra along the surface, we identified graphene flakes that are decoupled or very weakly coupled to the substrate. From the Landau level sequence in this flake, we extract the local Fermi velocity and energy of the Dirac point and find extremely weak spatial variation of these quantities confirming the high quality and non invasive nature of the graphite substrate.     

Landau levels in uniaxially strained graphene: A geometrical approach

The effect of strain on the Landau levels (LLs) spectra in graphene is studied, using an effective Dirac-like Hamiltonian which includes the distortion in the Dirac cones, anisotropy and spatial-dependence of the Fermi velocity induced by the lattice change through a renormalized linear momentum. We propose a geometrical approach to obtain the electron’s wave-function and the LLs in graphene from the Sturm–Liouville theory, using the minimal substitution method. The coefficients of the renormalized linear momentum are fitted to the energy bands, which are obtained from a Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculation. In particular, we evaluate the case of Dirac cones with an ellipsoidal transversal section resulting from uniaxially strained graphene along the Arm-Chair (AC) and Zig-Zag (ZZ) directions. We found that uniaxial strain in graphene induces a contraction of the LLs spectra for both strain directions. Also, is evaluated the contribution of the tilting of Dirac cone axis resulting from the uniaxial deformations to the contraction of the LLs spectra.     

Variational approach for the effects of periodic modulations on the spectrum of massless Dirac fermion

In the variational framework, we study the electronic energy spectrum of massless Dirac fermions of graphene subjected to one-dimensional oscillating magnetic and electrostatic fields centered around a constant uniform static magnetic field. We analyze the influence of the lateral periodic modulations in one direction, created by these oscillating electric and magnetic fields, on Dirac like Landau levels depending on amplitudes and periods of the field modulations. We compare our theoretical results with those found within the framework of non-degenerate perturbation theory. We found that the technique presented here yields energies lower than that obtained by the perturbation calculation, and thus gives more stable solutions for the electronic spectrum of massless Dirac fermion subjected to a magnetic field perpendicular to graphene layer under the influence of additional periodic potentials.     

Lattice-induced double-valley degeneracy lifting in graphene by a magnetic field

We show that the recently discovered double-valley splitting of the Landau levels in the quantum Hall effect in graphene can be explained as the perturbative orbital interaction of intravalley and intervalley microscopic orbital currents with a magnetic field. This effect is facilitated by the translationally noninvariant terms that correspond to graphene's crystallographic honeycomb symmetry but do not exist in the relativistic theory of massless Dirac fermions in quantum electrodynamics. We discuss recent data in view of these findings.     

Electric field effect tuning of electron-phonon coupling in graphene

Gate-modulated low-temperature Raman spectra reveal that the electric field effect (EFE), pervasive in contemporary electronics, has marked impacts on long-wavelength optical phonons of graphene. The EFE in this two-dimensional honeycomb lattice of carbon atoms creates large density modulations of carriers with linear dispersion (known as Dirac fermions). Our EFE Raman spectra display the interactions of lattice vibrations with these unusual carriers. The changes of phonon frequency and linewidth demonstrate optically the particle-hole symmetry about the charge-neutral Dirac point. The linear dependence of the phonon frequency on the EFE-modulated Fermi energy is explained as the electron-phonon coupling of massless Dirac fermions.     

Visualizing electronic chirality and Berry phases in graphene systems using photoemission with circularly polarized light

Electronic chirality near the Dirac point is a key property of graphene systems, which is revealed by the spectral intensity patterns as measured by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy under various polarization conditions. Specifically, the strongly modulated circular patterns for monolayer (bilayer) graphene rotate by ±90° (±45°) in changing from linearly to circularly polarized light; these angles are directly related to the phases of the wave functions and thus visually confirm the Berry's phase of π (2π) around the Dirac point. The details are verified by calculations.     

Bound states of Dirac electrons in a graphene-based magnetic quantum dot

We investigate the magnetically confined states of the massless Dirac fermions in a graphene quantum dot formed by the inhomogeneous distributions of the magnetic fields inside and outside the dot. The calculated energy spectrum exhibits quite different features with and without the magnetic field inside the dot. It is found that the degeneracy of the relativistic Landau level with negative angular momenta can be lifted, and this degeneracy breaking can be modulated by the magnetic field inside the dot. Moreover, such a system can form the strongly localized states within the dot and along its boundary, especially with the magnetic field inside the dot.     

Tunneling of Dirac fermions through magnetic barriers in graphene

We have studied the tunneling of Dirac fermions through magnetic barriers in graphene. Magnetic barriers are produced via delta function-like inhomogeneous magnetic fields in which Dirac fermions in graphene experience the tunneling barrier in the real sense in contrast to Klein paradox caused by electrostatic barriers. The transmission through the magnetic barriers as functions of incident energy and angle of incoming fermions shows characteristic oscillations associated with tunneling resonances. We have also found the confined states in the magnetic barrier region which turn out to correspond to the total internal reflection in the usual optics.     

石墨烯莫尔超晶格

石墨烯莫尔超晶格来源于六方氮化硼衬底对石墨烯的二维周期势调控. 由于这种外加的周期势对石墨烯能带具有显著的调制作用, 近年来引发了人们广泛的关注. 利用氮化硼衬底上外延的单晶石墨烯薄膜, 我们系统研究了基底调制下的莫尔超晶格以及相关的物理特性. 首先, 我们在电子端和空穴端都观测到了超晶格狄拉克点, 并且超晶格狄拉克点同本征狄拉克点类似, 都表现出绝缘体的特性. 在低温强磁场下, 可以观测到到单层石墨烯和双层石墨烯的量子霍尔效应. 并且, 从朗道扇形图中, 可以清晰的看到磁场下形成的超晶格朗道能级. 此外, 利用红外光谱的方法研究了强磁场下石墨烯超晶格体系不同朗道能级之间的跃迁, 发现这种跃迁满足有质量狄拉克费米子的行为, 对应38 meV的本征能隙. 在此基础上, 我们在380 meV位置发现一个同超晶格能量对应的光电导峰. 通过利用旋量势中三个不同的势分量对光电导峰进行拟合, 发现赝自旋杂化势起主导作用. 进一步研究表明赝自旋杂化势强度随载流子浓度的增大显著降低, 表明电子-电子相互作用引起的旋量势的重构.     

Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy studies of electron-electron interactions in graphene

Graphene is an emergent research topic that has attracted a huge amount of research interest ever since its experimental demonstration as a two-dimensional realization of Dirac fermions in 2005. In subsequent years, the research on graphene has rapidly expanded its field not only due to the new paradigm to study relativistic high energy physics in a condensed matter, but also due to its potential in the application for next generation devices. Most of the novel phenomena observed so far in graphene are attributed to its low-energy excitations, which is described by those of relativistic Dirac fermions. This article reviews recent progress in angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy studies of electron-electron interactions in graphene.     

Reversal of Klein reflection by magnetic barriers in bilayer graphene

Massless Dirac fermions in monolayer graphene exhibit total transmission when normally incident on a scalar potential barrier, a consequence of the Klein paradox originally predicted by O Klein for relativistic electrons obeying the 3 + 1 dimensional Dirac equation. For bilayer graphene, charge carriers are massive Dirac fermions and, due to different chiralities, electron and hole states are not coupled to each other. Therefore, the wavefunction of an incident particle decays inside a barrier as for the non-relativistic Schr?dinger equation. This leads to exponentially small transmission upon normal incidence. We show that, in the presence of magnetic barriers, such massive Dirac fermions can have transmission even at normal incidence. The general consequences of this behavior for multilayer graphene consisting of massless and massive modes are mentioned. We also briefly discuss the effect of a bias voltage on such magnetotransport.     

Magnetic-like field inducing negative Dirac mass in graphene on hexagonal boron nitride

The tight-binding electrons in graphene grown on top of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) substrate are studied. The two types of surfaces on the h-BN substrate give rise to Dirac fermions having positive and negative masses. The positive and negative masses of the Dirac fermions lead to the gapped graphene to behave as a “pseudo” ferromagnet. A very large (pseudo) tunneling magnetoresistance is predicted when the Fermi level approaches the gap region. The energy gap due to the breaking of sublattice symmetry in graphene on h-BN substrate is analogous to magnetic-induced energy gap on surface of topological insulators. We point out that positive and negative masses may correspond to signs of magnetic-like field perpendicular to graphene sheet acting on pseudo magnetic dipole moment of electrons, leading to pseudo-Larmor precession and Stern–Gerlach magnetic force.     

Velocity renormalization and carrier lifetime in graphene from the electron-phonon interaction

We present a first-principles investigation of the phonon-induced electron self-energy in graphene. The energy dependence of the self-energy reflects the peculiar linear band structure of graphene and deviates substantially from the usual metallic behavior. The effective band velocity of the Dirac fermions is found to be reduced by 4%-8%, depending on doping, by the interaction with lattice vibrations. Our results are consistent with the observed linear dependence of the electronic linewidth on the binding energy in photoemission spectra.     

Onset of landau-level formation in carbon-nanotube-based electronic Fabry-Perot resonators

We report on the onset of Landau-level formation in a carbon nanotube-based Fabry-Perot resonator. Supported by excellent agreement between calculated and measured magnetoconductance patterns, the applied perpendicular magnetic field is shown to modulate the Fabry-Perot conductance oscillations consistently with the formation of a Landau level in the 1D massless Dirac fermions particle excitations.