Complex Quantum Systems/Condensed Matter Seminar

Andrea Young, UC-Santa Barbara

"Layer-resolved probe of charge order in atomically thin bilayers"

12:30pm, RLM 11.204

Abstract: Bilayer graphene is a highly tunable electronic system in which electric fields can be used to control both the carrier density as well as the electronic structure. Like its monolayer cousin, the bilayer graphene Landau levels are characterized by approximate spin and valley degeneracy; unlike monolayer, however, the three dimensional structure of the bilayer allows control of the sublattice splitting with a perpendicular electric field.  This feature has been used extensively to probe the phase diagram of interacting electrons, particularly  within the zero energy Landau level, revealing a number of interacting states characterized by spin and/or valley order. Typically, however, the spin or valley order is inferred indirectly by varying conjugate fields and inferring the order from the resulting changes in conductivity.  Here I will describe a technique capable of resolving layer-polarization directly through high sensitivity capacitance measurements.  The measurements confirm the known features of the bilayer graphene phase diagram, while revealing several new phases and a series of sharp features associated with phase transitions between states of different layer polarization.  These features suggest a new mechanism for inversion symmetry breaking in Bernal stacked bilayer graphene.