Valley-chiral quantum Hall state in graphene superlattice structure

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the quantum Hall effect in a graphene superlattice (GS) system, in which the two valleys of graphene are coupled together. In the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field, an ordinary quantum Hall effect is found with the sequence . At the zeroth Hall platform, a valley-chiral Hall state stemming from the single K or valley is found and it is localized only on one sample boundary contributing to the longitudinal conductance but not to the Hall conductivity. Our findings may shed light on the graphene-based valleytronics applications.