Charge Neutrality Point Research Articles

Mesoscopic electronic transport in twisted bilayer graphene

We numerically investigate the electronic transport properties between two mesoscopic graphene disks with a twist by employing the density functional theory coupled with non-equilibrium Green's function technique. By attaching two graphene leads to upper and lower graphene layers separately, we explore systematically the dependence of electronic transport on the twist angle, Fermi energy, system size, layer stacking order and twist axis. When choose different twist axes for either AA- or AB-stacked bilayer graphene, we find that the dependence of conductance on twist angle displays qualitatively distinction, i.e., the systems with "top" axis exhibit finite conductance oscillating as a function of the twist angle, while the ones with "hollow" axis exhibit nearly vanishing conductance for different twist angles or Fermi energies near the charge neutrality point. These findings suggest that the choice of twist axis can effectively tune the interlayer conductance, making it a crucial factor in designing of nanodevices with the twisted van der Waals multilayers.

Cascade of phase transitions and Dirac revivals in magic-angle graphene.

Twisted bilayer graphene near the magic angle1-4 exhibits rich electron-correlation physics, displaying insulating3-6, magnetic7,8 and superconducting phases4-6. The electronic bands of this system were predicted1,2 to narrow markedly9,10 near the magic angle, leading to a variety of possible symmetry-breaking ground states11-17. Here, using measurements of the local electronic compressibility, we show that these correlated phases originate from a high-energy state with an unusual sequence of band population. As carriers are added to the system, the four electronic 'flavours', which correspond to the spin and valley degrees of freedom, are not filled equally. Rather, they are populated through a sequence of sharp phase transitions, which appear as strong asymmetric jumps of the electronic compressibility near integer fillings of the moiré lattice. At each transition, a single spin/valley flavour takes all the carriers from its partially filled peers, 'resetting' them to the vicinity of the charge neutrality point. As a result, the Dirac-like character observed near charge neutrality reappears after each integer filling. Measurement of the in-plane magnetic field dependence of the chemical potential near filling factor one reveals a large spontaneous magnetization, further substantiating this picture of a cascade of symmetry breaking. The sequence of phase transitions and Dirac revivals is observed at temperatures well above the onset of the superconducting and correlated insulating states. This indicates that the state thatwe report here, with its strongly broken electronic flavour symmetry and revived Dirac-like electronic character, is important in the physics of magic-angle graphene, forming the parent state out of which the more fragile superconducting and correlated insulating ground states emerge.

Schottky junction photodiode based on graphene—organic semiconductor heterostructure

The isolation of graphene on an insulating substrate has provided new opportunities for the fabrication of electronic devices with radically new geometries and structures. The use of single-layer graphene as an electrode has enabled the development of novel electronic device architectures that exploit the unique atomically thin structure of the material, which also includes a low density of states at its charge neutrality point. In this work, we present the first example of a vertical Schottky junction photodiode based on the graphene—organic semiconductor–metal heterostructure. The n-type N,N′-dioctyl-3,4,9,10-perylenedicarboximide (PTCDI-C8) organic semiconductor was thermally deposited onto chemical vapor deposition (CVD)-grown single-layer graphene. The tunable Schottky injection barrier permitted tuning of the diode rectification ratio by more than two orders of magnitude upon application of gate biases, which increased the photocurrent but suppressed the dark current of the photodiodes. Tuning of the photovoltaic properties of the devices was also confirmed, indicating that the device architecture based on the work function tunability of graphene could provide a versatile strategy for enhancing the performance of organic photodiodes.

High thermoelectric performance in excitonic bilayer graphene

We consider the excitonic effects on the thermal properties in the AB-stacked bilayer graphene. The calculations are based on the bilayer generalization of the usual Hubbard model at the half-filling. The full interaction bandwidth is used without any low-energy assumption. We obtain the unusually high values for the electronic figure of merit even at the room-temperatures which is very promising for the thermoelectric applications of the AB-bilayer structure. We discuss the effects of the interlayer Coulomb interaction and temperature on different thermal parameters in the bilayer graphene and we emphasize the role of the charge neutrality point in the thermal properties and within the excitonic insulator transition scenario. The calculated values of the rate of thermoelectric conversion efficiency suggest the possibility of high-performance device applications of AB-bilayer graphene.

Metallic network of topological domain walls

We study the electronic and transport properties of a network of domain walls between insulating domains with opposite valley Chern numbers. We find that the network is semi-metallic with Dirac dispersion near the charge neutrality point and the corresponding electronic states distribute along the domain walls. Near the charge neutrality point, we find quantized conductance in nanoribbon with sawtooth domain wall edges that propagates along the boundaries and is robust against weak disorder. For a trident edged ribbon, we find a small energy gap due to the finite size effect making the nanoribbon an insulator. When the Fermi energy is away from charge neutrality point, all domain walls contribute to the conduction of current. Our results provide a comprehensive analysis of the electronic transport properties in a topological domain wall network that not only agrees qualitatively with experiments on marginally twisted bilayer graphene under a perpendicular electric field, but also can provide useful insights for designing low-power topological quantum devices.

Low-Frequency Noise Parameter Extraction Method for Single-Layer Graphene FETs

In this paper, a detailed parameter extraction methodology is proposed for low-frequency noise (LFN) in single layer (SL) graphene transistors (GFETs) based on a recently established compact LFN model. Drain current and LFN of two short channel back-gated GFETs (L=300, 100 nm) were measured at lower and higher drain voltages, for a wide range of gate voltages covering the region away from charge neutrality point (CNP) up to CNP at p-type operation region. Current-voltage (IV) and LFN data were also available from a long channel SL top solution-gated (SG) GFET (L=5 um), for both p- and n-type regions near and away CNP. At each of these regimes, the appropriate IV and LFN parameters can be accurately extracted. Regarding LFN, mobility fluctuation effect is dominant at CNP and from there the Hooge parameter aH can be extracted while the carrier number fluctuation contribution which is responsible for the well-known M-shape bias dependence of output noise divided by squared drain current, also observed in our data, makes possible the extraction of the NT parameter related to the number of traps. In the less possible case of a Lambda-shape trend, NT and aH can be extracted simultaneously from the region near CNP. Away from CNP, contact resistance can have a significant contribution to LFN and from there the relevant parameter SDR^2 is defined. The LFN parameters described above can be estimated from the low drain voltage region of operation where the effect of Velocity Saturation (VS) mechanism is negligible. VS effect results in the reduction of LFN at higher drain voltages and from there the IV parameter hOmega which represents the phonon energy and is related to VS effect can be derived both from drain current and LFN data.

Characterizing the Interactions of DNA Oligomers with Graphene Field-Effect Transistors

Introduction: Graphene field-effect transistors (G-FETs) constitute an emerging platform for biosensing applications. Indeed, graphene is an ideal material for the detection of biomolecules: every atom of its monolayer structure is in contact with its environment, resulting in an electrical conductivity that is highly responsive to local electrostatic fluctuations from adjacent molecules. For genomic applications, most detection methods use DNA probe sequences bound to the graphene surface, in order to capture a specific target DNA sequence and detect the corresponding change in the electrical response of the sensor1 - 2. However, the effect of interactions between DNA and graphene on the electrical conductance is still not fully understood. Here, we investigate specifically the adsorption of short DNA oligomers on graphene field-effect transistors, in order to model and control the effect of such interactions in biosensing applications with G-FETs. Methods and Results: First, we fabricated G-FET sensors as follow3: Using photolithography techniques, an array of source and drain electrodes were patterned in gold on a Si wafer with a SiO2 insulator layer, as well as a common on-chip gate electrode in platinum. High-quality monolayer CVD-grown graphene was transferred onto the substrate and then etched to create 6 x 4 µm ribbons between each source-drain pair. Transfer curves (Isd vs. Vg) performed in saline buffer solution revealed a conductance minimum at the charge neutrality point of the graphene. Devices were then exposed to solutions of DNA, consisting in 22-single-stranded nucleotides (ssDNA) or double-stranded nucleotides (dsDNA) DNA oligomers diluted in 0,01X PBS buffer. Selected G-FET devices were exposed to different ssDNA concentrations during 15 min, followed by washing steps with 0,01X PBS. Electrical curves were recorded before, during and after each DNA exposure. In this presentation, we will present results showing that ssDNA exposure causes a left-shift of the charge neutrality point above a concentration threshold, and that this shift is proportional to ssDNA concentration. In addition, non-covalent adsorption of ssDNA on graphene appears to be reversible upon washing. Finally, we will discuss differences between the adsorption of dsDNA and ssDNA. Conclusion and Relevance: Our results suggest that unspecific DNA adsorption on graphene can lead to a G-FET response, which needs to be modeled, compensated and /or passivated in biosensing experiments, especially in order to achieve low detection limits for target sequences in complex biological media.

Model for 1/f Noise in Graphene and in More Common Semiconductors

Measurements performed on several graphene samples have shown the presence of a minimum of the flicker noise power spectral density near the charge neutrality point. This behavior is anomalous with respect to what is observed in more usual semiconductors. Here, we report our explanation for this difference. We simulate the 1/f noise behavior of devices made of graphene and of more common semiconductors, through a model based on the validity of the mass-action law and on the conservation of the charge neutrality. We conclude that the minimum of the flicker noise at the charge neutrality point can be observed only in very clean samples of materials with similar mobilities for electrons and holes.

Determination of the trigonal warping orientation in Bernal-stacked bilayer graphene via scanning tunneling microscopy

The existence of strong trigonal warping around the K point for the low energy electronic states in multilayer (N$\geq$2) graphene films and graphite is well established. It is responsible for phenomena such as Lifshitz transitions and anisotropic ballistic transport. The absolute orientation of the trigonal warping with respect to the center of the Brillouin zone is however not agreed upon. Here, we use quasiparticle scattering experiments on a gated bilayer graphene/hexagonal boron nitride heterostructure to settle this disagreement. We compare Fourier transforms of scattering interference maps acquired at various energies away from the charge neutrality point with tight-binding-based joint density of states simulations. This comparison enables unambiguous determination of the trigonal warping orientation for bilayer graphene low energy states. Our experimental technique is promising for quasi-directly studying fine features of the band structure of gated two-dimensional materials such as topological transitions, interlayer hybridization, and moir\'e minibands.

Resonant scattering of Dice quasiparticles on oscillating quantum dots

We consider a Dice model with Dirac cones intersected by a topologically flat band at the charge neutrality point and analyze the inelastic scattering of massless pseudospin-1 particles on a circular, gate-defined, oscillating barrier. Focusing on the resonant scattering regime at small energy of the incident wave, we calculate the reflection and transmission coefficients and derive explicit expressions for the time-dependent particle probability, current density and scattering efficiency within (Floquet) Dirac-Weyl theory, both in the near-field and the far-field. We discuss the importance of sideband scattering and Fano resonances in the quantum limit. When resonance conditions are fulfilled, the particle is temporarily trapped in vortices located close to edge of the quantum dot before it gets resubmitted with strong angular dependence. Interestingly even periodically alternating forward and backward radiation may occur. We also demonstrate the revival of resonant scattering related to specific fusiform boundary trapping profiles.Graphical abstract

Single-Carrier Transport in Graphene/hBN Superlattices.

Graphene/hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) moiré superlattices have attracted interest for use in the study of many-body effects and fractal physics in Dirac fermion systems. Many exotic transport properties have been intensively examined in such superlattices, but previous studies have not focused on single-carrier transport. The investigation of the single-carrier behavior in these superlattices would lead to an understanding of the transition of single-particle/correlated phenomena. Here, we show the single-carrier transport in a high-quality bilayer graphene/hBN superlattice-based quantum dot device. We demonstrate remarkable device controllability in the energy range near the charge neutrality point (CNP) and the hole-side satellite point. Under a perpendicular magnetic field, Coulomb oscillations disappear near the CNP, which could be a signature of the crossover between Coulomb blockade and quantum Hall regimes. Our results pave the way for exploring the relationship of single-electron transport and fractal quantum Hall effects with correlated phenomena in two-dimensional quantum materials.

Anomalous Coulomb Drag between InAs Nanowire and Graphene Heterostructures.

Correlated charge inhomogeneity breaks the electron-hole symmetry in two-dimensional (2D) bilayer heterostructures which is responsible for nonzero drag appearing at the charge neutrality point. Here we report Coulomb drag in novel drag systems consisting of a two-dimensional graphene and a one-dimensional (1D) InAs nanowire (NW) heterostructure exhibiting distinct results from 2D-2D heterostructures. For monolayer graphene (MLG)-NW heterostructures, we observe an unconventional drag resistance peak near the Dirac point due to the correlated interlayer charge puddles. The drag signal decreases monotonically with temperature (∼T^{-2}) and with the carrier density of NW (∼n_{N}^{-4}), but increases rapidly with magnetic field (∼B^{2}). These anomalous responses, together with the mismatched thermal conductivities of graphene and NWs, establish the energy drag as the responsible mechanism of Coulomb drag in MLG-NW devices. In contrast, for bilayer graphene (BLG)-NW devices the drag resistance reverses sign across the Dirac point and the magnitude of the drag signal decreases with the carrier density of the NW (∼n_{N}^{-1.5}), consistent with the momentum drag but remains almost constant with magnetic field and temperature. This deviation from the expected T^{2} arises due to the shift of the drag maximum on graphene carrier density. We also show that the Onsager reciprocity relation is observed for the BLG-NW devices but not for the MLG-NW devices. These Coulomb drag measurements in dimensionally mismatched (2D-1D) systems, hitherto not reported, will pave the future realization of correlated condensate states in novel systems.

Observation of spin-polarized Anderson state around charge neutral point in graphene with Fe-clusters

The pristine graphene described with massless Dirac fermion could bear topological insulator state and ferromagnetism via the band structure engineering with various adatoms and proximity effects from heterostructures. In particular, topological Anderson insulator state was theoretically predicted in tight-binding honeycomb lattice with Anderson disorder term. Here, we introduced physi-absorbed Fe-clusters/adatoms on graphene to impose exchange interaction and random lattice disorder, and we observed Anderson insulator state accompanying with Kondo effect and field-induced conducting state upon applying the magnetic field at around a charge neutral point. Furthermore, the emergence of the double peak of resistivity at ν = 0 state indicates spin-splitted edge state with high effective exchange field (>70 T). These phenomena suggest the appearance of topological Anderson insulator state triggered by the induced exchange field and disorder.

Electron-phonon interaction and zero-field charge carrier transport in the nodal-line semimetal ZrSiS

We study electron-phonon interaction and related transport properties of nodal-line semimetal ZrSiS using first-principles calculations. We find that ZrSiS is characterized by a weak electron-phonon coupling on the order of 0.1, which is almost energy independent. The main contribution to the electron-phonon coupling originates from long-wavelength optical phonons, causing no significant renormalization of the electron spectral function. At the charge neutrality point, we find that electrons and holes provide a comparable contribution to the scattering rate. The phonon-limited resistivity calculated within the Boltzmann transport theory is found to be strongly direction-dependent with the ratio between out-of-plane and in-plane directions being $\rho_{zz}/\rho_{xx}\sim 7.5$, mainly determined by the anisotropy of carrier velocities. We estimate zero-field resistivity to be $\rho_{xx}\approx12$ $\mu\Omega$ cm at 300 K, which is in good agreement with experimental data. Relatively small resistivity in ZrSiS can be attributed to a combination of weak electron-phonon coupling and high carrier velocities.

Theoretical Comparison between the Flicker Noise Behavior of Graphene and of Ordinary Semiconductors

Graphene is a material of particular interest for the implementation of sensors, and the ultimate performance of devices based on such a material is often determined by its flicker noise properties. Indeed, graphene exhibits, with respect to the vast majority of ordinary semiconductors, a peculiar behavior of the flicker noise power spectral density as a function of the charge carrier density. While in most materials flicker noise obeys the empirical Hooge law, with a power spectral density inversely proportional to the number of free charge carriers, in bilayer, and sometimes monolayer, graphene a counterintuitive behavior, with a minimum of flicker noise at the charge neutrality point, has been observed. We present an explanation for this stark difference, exploiting a model in which we enforce both the mass action law and the neutrality condition on the charge fluctuations deriving from trapping/detrapping phenomena. Here, in particular, we focus on the comparison between graphene and other semiconducting materials, concluding that a minimum of flicker noise at the charge neutrality point can appear only in the presence of a symmetric electron-hole behavior, a condition characteristic of graphene, but which is not found in the other commonly used semiconductors.

Donor effect dominated molybdenum disulfide/graphene nanostructure-based field-effect transistor for ultrasensitive DNA detection

Field effect transistor (FET) biosensors based on low-dimensional materials have the advantages of small in size, simple structure, fast response and high sensitivity. In this work, a field-effect transistor biosensor based on molybdenum disulfide/graphene (MoS2/graphene) hybrid nanostructure was proposed and fabricated for DNA hybridization detection. The biosensor achieved an effective response to DNA concentrations in a broad range from 10 aM to 100 pM and a limit of detection (LOD) of 10 aM was obtained, which was one or more orders of magnitude lower than the reported result. The sensing mechanisms (donor and gating effects) of the FET sensor were discussed. A larger voltage shift of the charge neutral point was obtained due to a strengthened donor effect and a weakened gating effect caused by the introduction of MoS2 layers. Such FET sensor shows high specificity for different matching degrees of complementary DNA, indicating the potential use of such a sensor in disease diagnosis.

Differential entropy per particle in Dirac semimetals in external magnetic field

We obtain a general expression for the differential entropy per particle (DEP) for three-dimensional Dirac systems as a function of chemical potential, temperature and magnetic field. It is shown that in the presence of magnetic field the dependence of DEP on the chemical potential near a charge neutral point is quite different from the corresponding dependence in graphene. Specifically, we observe a flat region with almost zero DEP near the charge neutral point which grows with the increase of the magnetic field followed then by decreasing oscillations due to contributions from the Landau levels. In contrast, in graphene there is a sharp peak observed for the chemical potential in the temperature vicinity of the Dirac point.

Fabrication of folded bilayer-bilayer graphene/hexagonal boron nitride superlattices

Carbon-based superlattices represent a novel class of quantum metamaterials having promising prospects. Here, we show the first fabrication of folded bilayer-bilayer graphene (fBBLG)/hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) superlattices. In the transport properties at low temperatures, satellite peaks are observed due to the crystallographic angle alignment of fBBLG and hBN. The peculiar resistance peaks appear away from the charge neutrality point and the hBN-induced satellites, which may be signatures of possible competing orders. Our results suggest the emergence of a unique electronic band-structure in the fBBLG, providing a way for investigating the correlated electron phenomena by performing energy-band engineering with superlattice structures.

Impact of epitaxial strain on the topological-nontopological phase diagram and semimetallic behavior of InAs/GaSb composite quantum wells

We study the influence of epitaxial strain on the electronic properties of InAs/GaSb composite quantum wells (CQWs), host structures for quantum spin Hall insulators, by transport measurements and eight-band $\mathbf{k\cdot p}$ calculations. Using different substrates and buffer layer structures for crystal growth, we prepare two types of samples with vastly different strain conditions. CQWs with a nearly strain-free GaSb layer exhibit a resistance peak at the charge neutrality point that reflects the opening of a topological gap in the band-inverted regime. In contrast, for CQWs with 0.50\% biaxial tensile strain in the GaSb layer, semimetallic behavior indicating a gap closure is found for the same degree of band inversion. Additionally, with the tensile strain, the boundary between the topological and nontopological regimes is located at a larger InAs thickness. Eight-band $\mathbf{k\cdot p}$ calculations reveal that tensile strain in GaSb not only shifts the phase boundary but also significantly modifies the band structure, which can result in the closure of an indirect gap and make the system semimetallic even in the topological regime. Our results thus provide a global picture of the topological-nontopological phase diagram as a function of layer thicknesses and strain.

From negative to positive magnetoresistance in the intrinsic magnetic topological insulator MnBi2Te4

We report the magnetotransport properties of $\mathrm{MnB}{\mathrm{i}}_{2}\mathrm{T}{\mathrm{e}}_{4}$ thin flakes through gate modulation at low temperatures. Under in-plane magnetic field, a large negative magnetoresistance (MR) maintains up to 10 T, which is related to the suppression of spin scattering when the magnetic order is gradually forced into the ferromagnetic (FM) state. Under perpendicular magnetic field, a steep resistance decrease is observed around \ensuremath{\sim}3 T, corresponding to the transition from an antiferromagnetic (AFM) to a canted AFM (CAFM) state. Due to the net Berry curvature, a notable anomalous Hall effect is observed and can be effectively tuned by gate voltages. The enhanced Hall coefficient would emerge under high magnetic fields when the Fermi level is close to the charge neutral point. Moreover, a transition from negative to positive MR is obtained when increasing the magnetic field. A large linear positive MR occurs around $\ensuremath{\sim}8\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{T}$, corresponding to the CAFM-FM transition. The nonsaturated positive MR here may have a similar mechanism to the one in Weyl semimetals, revealing the strong combination between topology and magnetism in $\mathrm{MnB}{\mathrm{i}}_{2}\mathrm{T}{\mathrm{e}}_{4}$.