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Electronic phase separation in multilayer rhombohedral graphite

Author

Listed:
  • Yanmeng Shi

    (University of Manchester)

  • Shuigang Xu

    (University of Manchester)

  • Yaping Yang

    (University of Manchester
    University of Manchester)

  • Sergey Slizovskiy

    (University of Manchester
    University of Manchester)

  • Sergey V. Morozov

    (Russian Academy of Sciences)

  • Seok-Kyun Son

    (University of Manchester
    University of Manchester
    Mokpo National University)

  • Servet Ozdemir

    (University of Manchester)

  • Ciaran Mullan

    (University of Manchester)

  • Julien Barrier

    (University of Manchester
    University of Manchester)

  • Jun Yin

    (University of Manchester
    University of Manchester)

  • Alexey I. Berdyugin

    (University of Manchester)

  • Benjamin A. Piot

    (Université Grenoble Alpes, Laboratoire National des Champs Magnétiques Intenses, UPS-INSA-EMFL-CNRS-LNCMI)

  • Takashi Taniguchi

    (National Institute for Materials Science)

  • Kenji Watanabe

    (National Institute for Materials Science)

  • Vladimir I. Fal’ko

    (University of Manchester
    University of Manchester
    Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials)

  • Kostya S. Novoselov

    (University of Manchester
    University of Manchester
    National University of Singapore
    Chongqing 2D Materials Institute)

  • A. K. Geim

    (University of Manchester
    University of Manchester)

  • Artem Mishchenko

    (University of Manchester
    University of Manchester)

Abstract

Of the two stable forms of graphite, hexagonal and rhombohedral, the former is more common and has been studied extensively. The latter is less stable, which has so far precluded its detailed investigation, despite many theoretical predictions about the abundance of exotic interaction-induced physics1–6. Advances in van der Waals heterostructure technology7 have now allowed us to make high-quality rhombohedral graphite films up to 50 graphene layers thick and study their transport properties. Here we show that the bulk electronic states in such rhombohedral graphite are gapped8 and, at low temperatures, electron transport is dominated by surface states. Because of their proposed topological nature, the surface states are of sufficiently high quality to observe the quantum Hall effect, whereby rhombohedral graphite exhibits phase transitions between a gapless semimetallic phase and a gapped quantum spin Hall phase with giant Berry curvature. We find that an energy gap can also be opened in the surface states by breaking their inversion symmetry by applying a perpendicular electric field. Moreover, in rhombohedral graphite thinner than four nanometres, a gap is present even without an external electric field. This spontaneous gap opening shows pronounced hysteresis and other signatures characteristic of electronic phase separation, which we attribute to emergence of strongly correlated electronic surface states.

Suggested Citation

  • Yanmeng Shi & Shuigang Xu & Yaping Yang & Sergey Slizovskiy & Sergey V. Morozov & Seok-Kyun Son & Servet Ozdemir & Ciaran Mullan & Julien Barrier & Jun Yin & Alexey I. Berdyugin & Benjamin A. Piot & T, 2020. "Electronic phase separation in multilayer rhombohedral graphite," Nature, Nature, vol. 584(7820), pages 210-214, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:584:y:2020:i:7820:d:10.1038_s41586-020-2568-2
    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2568-2
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    Cited by:

    1. Wenqiang Zhou & Jing Ding & Jiannan Hua & Le Zhang & Kenji Watanabe & Takashi Taniguchi & Wei Zhu & Shuigang Xu, 2024. "Layer-polarized ferromagnetism in rhombohedral multilayer graphene," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.
    2. Dong Xing & Bingbing Tong & Senyang Pan & Zezhi Wang & Jianlin Luo & Jinglei Zhang & Cheng-Long Zhang, 2024. "Rashba-splitting-induced topological flat band detected by anomalous resistance oscillations beyond the quantum limit in ZrTe5," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-7, December.

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