Pseudo-zero-mode Landau levels and collective excitations in bilayer graphene

Abstract

Bilayer graphene in a magnetic field supports eight zero-energy Landau levels, which, as a tunable band gap develops, split into two nearly degenerate quartets separated by the band gap. A close look is made into the properties of such an isolated quartet of pseudo-zero-mode levels at half filling in the presence of an in-plane electric field and the Coulomb interaction, with focus on revealing further controllable features in bilayer graphene. The half-filled pseudo-zero-mode levels support, via orbital level mixing, charge carriers with nonzero electric moment, which would lead to field-induced level splitting and the current-induced quantum Hall effect. It is shown that the Coulomb interaction enhances the effect of the in-plane field and their interplay leads to rich spectra of collective excitations, pseudospin waves, accessible by microwave experiments; also a duality in the excitation spectra is revealed.