arXiv · 2110.10823
Electronic confinement in quantum dots of twisted bilayer graphene
Abstract
Electronic properties of quantum dots (QDs) depend sensitively on their parent materials. Therefore, confined electronic states in graphene QDs (GQDs) of monolayer and Bernal-stacked bilayer graphene are quite different. Twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) is distinct from monolayer and Bernal-stacked bilayer graphene because of the new degree of freedom: twist angle. In the past few years, numerous efforts have been made to realize the GQDs of monolayer and Bernal-stacked bilayer graphene and achieved great success. Thus far, however, strategies for realizing GQDs of TBG have been elusive. Here, we demonstrate a general approach for fabricating stationary GQDs of TBG by introducing nanoscale p-n junctions with sharp boundaries in the TBG. We verify the confinement of low-energy massless Dirac fermions via whispering-gallery modes in the GQDs of TBG. Unexpectedly, electronic states around van Hove singularities of the TBG are also strongly modified around the GQDs. Such a feature has never been reported and is attributed to spatial variation of the interlayer coupling in the TBG induced by the GQDs.
Explore related subjects
Keep this discovery
Explore connections, maps & timelines
Xiao-Feng Zhou, Yi-Wen Liu, Hong-Yi Yan, Zhong-Qiu Fu, Haiwen Liu, Lin He. 2021-10-20. Electronic confinement in quantum dots of twisted bilayer graphene. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.104.235417
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.