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Spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking in twisted double bilayer graphene

Author

Listed:
  • Manabendra Kuiri

    (University of British Columbia)

  • Christopher Coleman

    (University of British Columbia)

  • Zhenxiang Gao

    (University of British Columbia)

  • Aswin Vishnuradhan

    (University of British Columbia)

  • Kenji Watanabe

    (Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute for Materials Science)

  • Takashi Taniguchi

    (National Institute for Materials Science)

  • Jihang Zhu

    (University of Texas at Austin)

  • Allan H. MacDonald

    (University of Texas at Austin)

  • Joshua Folk

    (University of British Columbia)

Abstract

Twisted double bilayer graphene (tDBG) comprises two Bernal-stacked bilayer graphene sheets with a twist between them. Gate voltages applied to top and back gates of a tDBG device tune both the flatness and topology of the electronic bands, enabling an unusual level of experimental control. Metallic states with broken spin and valley symmetries have been observed in tDBG devices with twist angles in the range 1.2–1.3°, but the topologies and order parameters of these states have remained unclear. We report the observation of an anomalous Hall effect in the correlated metal state of tDBG, with hysteresis loops spanning hundreds of mT in out-of-plane magnetic field (B⊥) that demonstrate spontaneously broken time-reversal symmetry. The B⊥ hysteresis persists for in-plane fields up to several Tesla, suggesting valley (orbital) ferromagnetism. At the same time, the resistivity is strongly affected by even mT-scale values of in-plane magnetic field, pointing to spin-valley coupling or to a direct orbital coupling between in-plane field and the valley degree of freedom.

Suggested Citation

  • Manabendra Kuiri & Christopher Coleman & Zhenxiang Gao & Aswin Vishnuradhan & Kenji Watanabe & Takashi Taniguchi & Jihang Zhu & Allan H. MacDonald & Joshua Folk, 2022. "Spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking in twisted double bilayer graphene," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-6, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-34192-x
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-34192-x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Gal Shavit & Stevan Nadj-Perge & Gil Refael, 2025. "Ephemeral superconductivity atop the false vacuum," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-8, December.
    2. Saisab Bhowmik & Bhaskar Ghawri & Youngju Park & Dongkyu Lee & Suvronil Datta & Radhika Soni & K. Watanabe & T. Taniguchi & Arindam Ghosh & Jeil Jung & U. Chandni, 2023. "Spin-orbit coupling-enhanced valley ordering of malleable bands in twisted bilayer graphene on WSe2," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.
    3. Dacen Waters & Ruiheng Su & Ellis Thompson & Anna Okounkova & Esmeralda Arreguin-Martinez & Minhao He & Katherine Hinds & Kenji Watanabe & Takashi Taniguchi & Xiaodong Xu & Ya-Hui Zhang & Joshua Folk , 2024. "Topological flat bands in a family of multilayer graphene moiré lattices," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.

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