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Title: Moiré nematic phase in twisted double bilayer graphene

Abstract

Graphene moiré superlattices display electronic flat bands. At integer fillings of these flat bands, energy gaps due to strong electron-electron interactions are generally observed. However, the presence of other correlation-driven phases in twisted graphitic systems at non-integer fillings is unclear. Here, we report the existence of threefold rotational symmetry breaking in twisted double bilayer graphene. Using spectroscopic imaging over large and uniform areas to characterize the direction and degree of C3 symmetry breaking, we find it to be prominent only at energies corresponding to the flat bands and nearly absent in the remote bands. We demonstrate that the magnitude of the rotational symmetry breaking does not depend on the degree of the heterostrain or the displacement field, being instead a manifestation of an interaction-driven electronic nematic phase. We show that the nematic phase is a primary order that arises from the normal metal state over a wide range of doping away from charge. Furthermore, our modelling suggests that the nematic instability is not associated with the local scale of the graphene lattice, but is an emergent phenomenon at the scale of the moiré lattice.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4];  [5]; ORCiD logo [6]; ORCiD logo [6];  [1]; ORCiD logo [7]; ORCiD logo [8]; ORCiD logo [9]; ORCiD logo [10]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)
  2. RWTH Aachen Univ., and JARA Fundamentals of Future Information Technology (Germany)
  3. Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
  4. Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States); Univ. of Innsbruck (Austria)
  5. Drexel Univ., Philadelphia, PA (United States)
  6. National Inst. for Materials Science, Tsukuba (Japan)
  7. Max Planck Inst. for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Hamburg (Germany); Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Guangdong (China)
  8. RWTH Aachen Univ., and JARA Fundamentals of Future Information Technology (Germany); Max Planck Inst. for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Hamburg (Germany)
  9. Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)
  10. Max Planck Inst. for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Hamburg (Germany); Flatiron Inst., New York, NY (United States); UPV/EHU, Donostia (Spain)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR); MEXT; JSPS KAKENHI; CREST
OSTI Identifier:
1961319
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0020045; FA9550-16-1-0601; JPMXP0112101001; JP20H00354; JPMJCR15F3
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nature Physics
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 18; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 1745-2473
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group (NPG)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; Electronic properties and materials; Quantum fluids and solids

Citation Formats

Rubio-Verdú, Carmen, Turkel, Simon, Song, Yuan, Klebl, Lennart, Samajdar, Rhine, Scheurer, Mathias S., Venderbos, Jörn W. F., Watanabe, Kenji, Taniguchi, Takashi, Ochoa, Héctor, Xian, Lede, Kennes, Dante M., Fernandes, Rafael M., Rubio, Ángel, and Pasupathy, Abhay N. Moiré nematic phase in twisted double bilayer graphene. United States: N. p., 2021. Web. doi:10.1038/s41567-021-01438-2.
Rubio-Verdú, Carmen, Turkel, Simon, Song, Yuan, Klebl, Lennart, Samajdar, Rhine, Scheurer, Mathias S., Venderbos, Jörn W. F., Watanabe, Kenji, Taniguchi, Takashi, Ochoa, Héctor, Xian, Lede, Kennes, Dante M., Fernandes, Rafael M., Rubio, Ángel, & Pasupathy, Abhay N. Moiré nematic phase in twisted double bilayer graphene. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-021-01438-2
Rubio-Verdú, Carmen, Turkel, Simon, Song, Yuan, Klebl, Lennart, Samajdar, Rhine, Scheurer, Mathias S., Venderbos, Jörn W. F., Watanabe, Kenji, Taniguchi, Takashi, Ochoa, Héctor, Xian, Lede, Kennes, Dante M., Fernandes, Rafael M., Rubio, Ángel, and Pasupathy, Abhay N. Thu . "Moiré nematic phase in twisted double bilayer graphene". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-021-01438-2. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1961319.
@article{osti_1961319,
title = {Moiré nematic phase in twisted double bilayer graphene},
author = {Rubio-Verdú, Carmen and Turkel, Simon and Song, Yuan and Klebl, Lennart and Samajdar, Rhine and Scheurer, Mathias S. and Venderbos, Jörn W. F. and Watanabe, Kenji and Taniguchi, Takashi and Ochoa, Héctor and Xian, Lede and Kennes, Dante M. and Fernandes, Rafael M. and Rubio, Ángel and Pasupathy, Abhay N.},
abstractNote = {Graphene moiré superlattices display electronic flat bands. At integer fillings of these flat bands, energy gaps due to strong electron-electron interactions are generally observed. However, the presence of other correlation-driven phases in twisted graphitic systems at non-integer fillings is unclear. Here, we report the existence of threefold rotational symmetry breaking in twisted double bilayer graphene. Using spectroscopic imaging over large and uniform areas to characterize the direction and degree of C3 symmetry breaking, we find it to be prominent only at energies corresponding to the flat bands and nearly absent in the remote bands. We demonstrate that the magnitude of the rotational symmetry breaking does not depend on the degree of the heterostrain or the displacement field, being instead a manifestation of an interaction-driven electronic nematic phase. We show that the nematic phase is a primary order that arises from the normal metal state over a wide range of doping away from charge. Furthermore, our modelling suggests that the nematic instability is not associated with the local scale of the graphene lattice, but is an emergent phenomenon at the scale of the moiré lattice.},
doi = {10.1038/s41567-021-01438-2},
journal = {Nature Physics},
number = 2,
volume = 18,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Dec 23 00:00:00 EST 2021},
month = {Thu Dec 23 00:00:00 EST 2021}
}

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