arXiv subjects

Bernd Beschoten

Publications and source records attributed to Bernd Beschoten.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

1D Interface-Induced Real-Space Berry Curvature Gradient Encoded in SpinValley-Coupled Nonlinear Photocurrent in Lateral Heterostructure

Symmetry breaking enables helicity-dependent optoelectronic responses in quantum materials. In two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), circular photocurrent (CPC) is typically observed under oblique illumination via the circular photon drag effect, while realization of the intrinsic circular photogalvanic effect (CPGE) under normal incidence remains challenging. Here, we report a clear signature of CPGE in chemical vapor deposition-grown monolayer 2D lateral heterostructure (LHS). By probing the nonlocal photocurrent across the 1D hetero-interface, we observe a helicity-dependent photocurrent consistent with a spin-valley-coupled CPGE-dominated mechanism driven by interface-induced Berry-curvature asymmetry, i.e., Berry curvature dipole. Spatially and spectrally resolved measurements under selective excitation of the MoSe2, WSe2, and the interface regions exhibit distinct magnitudes and polarities of the CPG responses. These contrasting behaviors highlight the opposite spin-valley dichroism for MoSe2 and WSe2, as well as enhanced valley mixing at the 1D interface. Our findings establish LHS as a robust platform for realizing a hetero-interface-induced CPGE-like response and highlight its potential for valleytronics and optospintronics.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2026

Feasibility study of continuous electronic Pomeranchuk cooling with a flavor-degenerate Wigner crystal

Achieving sub-millikelvin electron temperatures in nanoelectronic devices could unveil new transport phenomena, extend quantum coherence times, and enhance the precision of quantum metrology. However, maintaining such low temperatures continuously remains a long-standing challenge. Here, we propose and simulate an on-chip cooling cycle that harnesses the entropy difference between an electron liquid (EL) and a Wigner crystal (WC) in flavor-degenerate flat-band materials. Cooling is driven by a current through a device with a locally gated region. Within this region, the charge carrier density is tuned such that a WC forms beneath the gate. As carriers transition from an EL to WC phase, their entropy increases, extracting heat and the sliding WC advects this heat along the device. The heat is then released when carriers transition back to the EL phase, which establishes distinct hot and cold regions and a steady temperature gradient over the device. Simulations show net cooling for sufficiently low current densities, typically below $1~\mathrm{nA}/μ\mathrm{m}$, whereas Joule heating dominates at higher currents. Within the gated region, we estimate cooling powers of up to $8.4~\mathrm{aW}/μ\mathrm{m}$ at a bath temperature of $4~\mathrm{mK}$. Our approach can achieve electron temperatures well below $1~\mathrm{mK}$ under suitable conditions, promising a route towards continuous on-chip cooling in this temperature regime. Our approach applies to any flat-band material with low-energy flavor degeneracy (valley and/or orbital) and low disorder, including gapped Bernal-stacked bilayer graphene, rhombohedral-stacked multilayer graphene, and magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2026

Room-temperature spin-lifetime anisotropy exceeding 60 in bilayer graphene spin valves proximity coupled to WSe$_2$

A spin lifetime anisotropy between in-plane and out-of-plane spins in bilayer graphene (BLG) can be achieved by spin-orbit proximity coupling of graphene to transition metal dichalcogenides. This coupling reduces the in-plane spin lifetime due to proximity-induced spin scattering, while the out-of-plane spin lifetime remains largely unaffected. We show that at room temperature spin lifetime anisotropy exceeds 60 in a bilayer graphene lateral spin valve proximity coupled to WSe$_2$. The out-of-plane spin lifetime of about 250 ps closely matches that of a BLG reference region not in contact with WSe$_2$. In contrast, the estimated in-plane spin lifetime of less than 4 ps leads to a complete suppression of the in-plane spin signal at the ferromagnetic Co/MgO spin detector. The proximity coupling of WSe$_2$ to BLG is particularly promising, as it does not compromise the charge carrier mobility within the graphene channel.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2026

Probing the band structure of the strongly correlated antiferromagnet NiPS3 across its phase transition

NiPS3 is an exfoliable van-der-Waals intralayer antiferromagnet with zigzag-type spin arrangement. It is distinct from other TMPS3 (TM: transition metal) materials by optical excitations into a strongly correlated state that is tied to the magnetic properties. However, the related, fundamental band structure across the antiferromagnetic phase transition has not been probed yet. Here, we use angular-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy with μm resolution in combination with DFT+U calculations for that purpose. We identify a characteristic band shift across TN. It is attributed to bands of mixed Ni and S character related to the superexchange interaction of Ni 3t2g orbitals. Moreover, we find a structure above the valence band maximum with little angular dispersion that could not be reproduced by the calculations. The discrepancy suggests the influence of many-body interactions beyond the DFT+U approximations in striking contrast to the results on MnPS3 and FePS3, where these calculations were sufficient for an adequate description.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Non-local electrical detection of spin-polarized surface currents in the 3D topological insulator BiSbTeSe$_{2}$

The spin-polarized surface states in topological insulators offer unique transport characteristics that make them distinguishable from trivial conductors. Here, we detect the impact of these surface states in the topological insulator BiSbTeSe$_{2}$ by electrical means using a non-local transport configuration with ferromagnetic Co/Al$_2$O$_3$ electrodes. We show that the non-local measurement allows to probe the surface currents flowing along the whole surface, i.e.~from the top along the side to the bottom surface and back to the top surface along the opposite side. Increasing the temperature increases the interaction between bulk and surface states, which shortens this non-local current path along the surface and hence leads to a complete disappearance of the non-local signal at around 20K. Interestingly, we observe that the ratio between spin signal to background signal is much larger in the non-local geometry compared to the local one. Given that the observed ratio in the non-local geometry aligns well with expectations for spin-polarized surface states, our findings suggest that an as-yet unresolved mechanism diminishes the spin signal in the local geometry.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Probing enhanced electron-phonon coupling in graphene by infrared resonance Raman spectroscopy

We report on resonance Raman spectroscopy measurements with excitation photon energy down to 1.16 eV on graphene, to study how low-energy carriers interact with lattice vibrations. Thanks to the excitation energy close to the Dirac point at $\mathbf{K}$, we unveil a giant increase of the intensity ratio between the double-resonant 2D and 2D$^\prime$ peaks with respect to that measured in graphite. Comparing with fully \textit{ab initio} theoretical calculations, we conclude that the observation is explained by an enhanced, momentum-dependent coupling between electrons and Brillouin zone-boundary optical phonons. This finding applies to two dimensional Dirac systems and has important consequences for the modeling of transport in graphene devices operating at room temperature.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Anisotropic supercurrent suppression and revivals in a graphene-based Josephson junction under in-plane magnetic fields

We report on a tunable Josephson junction formed by a bilayer graphene ribbon encapsulated in WSe$_2$ with superconducting niobium contacts. We characterize the junction by measurements of the magnetic field induced interference pattern, and the AC Josephson effect manifested as "Shapiro steps", examining current dependent hysteresis and junction dynamics. The latter can be tuned by temperature, gate voltage, and magnetic field. Finally, we examine the evolution of the supercurrent when subjected to in-plane magnetic fields. Notably, we observe a strong anisotropy in the supercurrent with respect to the orientation of the in-plane magnetic field. When the field is parallel to the current direction, the supercurrent is suppressed, and shows revivals with increasing magnetic field, whereas it remains almost unaffected when the field is oriented in a perpendicular direction. We suggest that this anisotropy is caused by the dependence of supercurrent interference on the junction geometry.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Current-induced brightening of vacancy-related emitters in hexagonal boron nitride

We perform photoluminescence measurements on vacancy-related emitters in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) that are notorious for their low quantum yields. The gating of these emitters via few-layer graphene electrodes reveals a reproducible, gate-dependent brightening of the emitter, which coincides with a change in the direction of the simultaneously measured leakage current across the hBN layers. At the same time, we observe that the relative increase of the brightening effect scales linearly with the intensity of the excitation laser. Both observations can be explained in terms of a photo-assisted electroluminescence effect. Interestingly, emitters can also show the opposite behavior, i.e. a decrease in emitter intensity that depends on the gate leakage current. We explain these two opposing behaviors with different concentrations of donor and acceptor states in the hBN and show that precise control of the doping of hBN is necessary to gain control over the brightness of vacancy-related emitters by electrical means. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of vacancy-related defects in hBN that is necessary to make use of their potential for quantum information processing.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

MaskTerial: A Foundation Model for Automated 2D Material Flake Detection

The detection and classification of exfoliated two-dimensional (2D) material flakes from optical microscope images can be automated using computer vision algorithms. This has the potential to increase the accuracy and objectivity of classification and the efficiency of sample fabrication, and it allows for large-scale data collection. Existing algorithms often exhibit challenges in identifying low-contrast materials and typically require large amounts of training data. Here, we present a deep learning model, called MaskTerial, that uses an instance segmentation network to reliably identify 2D material flakes. The model is extensively pre-trained using a synthetic data generator, that generates realistic microscopy images from unlabeled data. This results in a model that can to quickly adapt to new materials with as little as 5 to 10 images. Furthermore, an uncertainty estimation model is used to finally classify the predictions based on optical contrast. We evaluate our method on eight different datasets comprising five different 2D materials and demonstrate significant improvements over existing techniques in the detection of low-contrast materials such as hexagonal boron nitride.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2024

Gate-defined single-electron transistors in twisted bilayer graphene

Twisted bilayer graphene (tBLG) near the magic angle is a unique platform where the combination of topology and strong correlations gives rise to exotic electronic phases. These phases are gate-tunable and related to the presence of flat electronic bands, isolated by single-particle band gaps. This enables gate-controlled charge confinement, essential for the operation of single-electron transistors (SETs), and allows to explore the interplay of confinement, electron interactions, band renormalisation and the moiré superlattice, potentially revealing key paradigms of strong correlations. Here, we present gate-defined SETs in near-magic-angle tBLG with well-tunable Coulomb blockade resonances. These SETs allow to study magnetic field-induced quantum oscillations in the density of states of the source-drain reservoirs, providing insight into gate-tunable Fermi surfaces of tBLG. Comparison with tight-binding calculations highlights the importance of displacement-field-induced band renormalisation crucial for future advanced gate-tunable quantum devices and circuits in tBLG including e.g. quantum dots and Josephson junction arrays.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Benchmarking the integration of hexagonal boron nitride crystals and thin films into graphene-based van der Waals heterostructures

We present a benchmarking protocol that combines the characterization of boron nitride (BN) crystals and films with the evaluation of the electronic properties of graphene on these substrates. Our study includes hBN crystals grown under different conditions and scalable BN films deposited by either chemical or physical vapor deposition (CVD or PVD). We explore the complete process from boron nitride growth, over its optical characterization by time-resolved cathodoluminescence (TRCL), to the optical and electronic characterization of graphene by Raman spectroscopy after encapsulation and Hall bar processing. Within our benchmarking protocol we achieve a homogeneous electronic performance within each Hall bar device through a fast and reproducible processing routine. We find that a free exciton lifetime of 1 ns measured on as-grown hBN crystals by TRCL is sufficient to achieve high graphene room temperature charge carrier mobilities of 80,000 cm$^2$/(Vs) at a carrier density of |n| = 10$^{12}$ cm$^{-2}$, while respective exciton lifetimes around 100 ps yield mobilities up to 30,000 cm$^2$/(Vs). For scalable PVD-grown BN films, we measure carrier mobilities exceeding 10,000 cm$^2$/(Vs) which correlates with a graphene Raman 2D peak linewidth of 22 cm$^{-1}$. Our work highlights the importance of the Raman 2D linewidth of graphene as a critical metric that effectively assesses the interface quality (i.e. surface roughness) to the BN substrate, which directly affects the charge carrier mobility of graphene. Graphene 2D linewidth analysis is suitable for all BN substrates and is particularly advantageous when TRCL or BN Raman spectroscopy cannot be applied to specific BN materials such as amorphous or thin films. This underlines the superior role of spatially-resolved spectroscopy in the evaluation of BN crystals and films for the use of high-mobility graphene devices.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2024

Identifying band structure changes of FePS3 across the antiferromagnetic phase transition

Magnetic 2D materials enable novel tuning options of magnetism. As an example, the van der Waals material FePS3, a zigzag-type intralayer antiferromagnet, exhibits very strong magnetoelastic coupling due to the different bond lengths along different ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic coupling directions enabling elastic tuning of magnetic properties. The likely cause of the length change is the intricate competition between direct exchange of the Fe atoms and superexchange via the S and P atoms. To elucidate this interplay, we study the band structure of exfoliated FePS3 by mu m scale ARPES (Angular Resolved Photoelectron Spectroscopy), both, above and, for the first time, below the Neel temperature TN. We find three characteristic changes across TN. They involve S 3p-type bands, Fe 3d-type bands and P 3p-type bands, respectively, as attributed by comparison with density functional theory calculations (DFT+U). This highlights the involvement of all the atoms in the magnetic phase transition providing independent evidence for the intricate exchange paths.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2024

Electrically Controlled Interfacial Charge Transfer Induced Excitons in MoSe2-WSe2 Lateral Heterostructure

Controlling excitons and their transport in two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) heterostructures is central to advancing photonics and electronics on-chip integration. We investigate the controlled generation and manipulation of excitons and their complexes in monolayer (1L) MoSe2-WSe2 lateral heterostructure (LHS), directly grown via water-assisted chemical vapor deposition. Using a field-effect transistor design by incorporating a few-layer graphene back gate, single-layer graphene edge contact and encapsulation with few-layer hexagonal boron nitride, we achieve precise electrical tuning of exciton complexes and their transfer across 1D interfaces. At cryogenic temperatures (4 K), photoluminescence and photocurrent maps reveal the synergistic effect of local electric field and interface phenomena in the modulation of excitons, trions, and free carriers. We observe spatial variations in exciton and trion densities driven by exciton-trion conversion under electrical manipulation. The first-principle density functional theory calculation reveals significant band modification at the lateral interfaces and graphene-TMDs contact region. Furthermore, we demonstrate the versatility of 2D TMDS LHS in hosting and manipulating quantum emitters, achieving precise control over narrow-band emissions through modulating carrier injection and electrical biasing. This work extends the boundary of the present understanding of excitonic behaviour within lateral heterojunctions, highlighting the potential for controlled exciton manipulation across 1D interfaces and paving the way for next-generation electro-optical quantum devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Distance dependence of the energy transfer mechanism in WS$_2$-graphene heterostructures

We report on the mechanism of energy transfer in van der Waals heterostructures of the two-dimensional semiconductor WS$_2$ and graphene with varying interlayer distances, achieved through spacer layers of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). We record photoluminescence and reflection spectra at interlayer distances between 0.5 nm and 5.8 nm (0-16 hBN layers). We find that the energy transfer is dominated by states outside the light cone, indicative of a Förster transfer process, with an additional contribution from a Dexter process at 0.5 nm interlayer distance. We find that the measured dependence of the luminescence intensity on interlayer distances above 1 nm can be quantitatively described using recently reported values of the Förster transfer rates of thermalized charge carriers. At smaller interlayer distances, the experimentally observed transfer rates exceed the predictions and furthermore depend on excess energy as well as on excitation density. Since the transfer probability of the Förster mechanism depends on the momentum of electron-hole pairs, we conclude that at these distances, the transfer is driven by non-thermalized charge carrier distributions.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Negative electronic compressibility in charge islands in twisted bilayer graphene

We report on the observation of negative electronic compressibility in twisted bilayer graphene for Fermi energies close to insulating states. To observe this negative compressibility, we take advantage of naturally occurring twist angle domains that emerge during the fabrication of the samples, leading to the formation of charge islands. We accurately measure their capacitance using Coulomb oscillations, from which we infer the compressibility of the electron gas. Notably, we not only observe the negative electronic compressibility near correlated insulating states at integer filling, but also prominently near the band insulating state at full filling, located at the edges of both the flat- and remote bands. Furthermore, the individual twist angle domains yield a well-defined carrier density, enabling us to quantify the strength of electronic interactions and verify the theoretical prediction that the inverse negative capacitance contribution is proportional to the average distance between the charge carriers. A detailed analysis of our findings suggests that Wigner crystallization is the most likely explanation for the observed negative electronic compressibility.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Band gap formation in commensurate twisted bilayer graphene/hBN moiré lattices

We report on the investigation of periodic superstructures in twisted bilayer graphene (tBLG) van-der-Waals heterostructures, where one of the graphene layers is aligned to hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). Our theoretical simulations reveal that if the ratio of the resulting two moiré unit cell areas is a simple fraction, the graphene/hBN moiré lattice acts as a staggered potential, breaking the degeneracy between tBLG AA sites. This leads to additional band gaps at energies where a subset of tBLG AA sites is fully occupied. These gaps manifest as Landau fans in magnetotransport, which we experimentally observe in an aligned tBLG/hBN heterostructure. Our study demonstrates the identification of commensurate tBLG/hBN van-der-Waals heterostructures by magnetotransport, highlights the persistence of moiré effects on length scales of tens of nanometers, and represents an interesting step forward in the ongoing effort to realise designed quantum materials with tailored properties.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Infrared resonance Raman of bilayer graphene: signatures of massive fermions and band structure on the 2D peak

Few-layer graphene possesses low-energy carriers which behave as massive fermions, exhibiting intriguing properties in both transport and light scattering experiments. Lowering the excitation energy of resonance Raman spectroscopy down to 1.17 eV we target these massive quasiparticles in the split bands close to the K point. The low excitation energy weakens some of the Raman processes which are resonant in the visible, and induces a clearer frequency-separation of the sub-structures of the resonance 2D peak in bi- and trilayer samples. We follow the excitation-energy dependence of the intensity of each sub-structure and, comparing experimental measurements on bilayer graphene with ab initio theoretical calculations, we trace back such modifications on the joint effects of probing the electronic dispersion close to the band splitting and enhancement of electron-phonon matrix elements.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

An open-source robust machine learning platform for real-time detection and classification of 2D material flakes

The most widely used method for obtaining high-quality two-dimensional materials is through mechanical exfoliation of bulk crystals. Manual identification of suitable flakes from the resulting random distribution of crystal thicknesses and sizes on a substrate is a time-consuming, tedious task. Here, we present a platform for fully automated scanning, detection, and classification of two-dimensional materials, the source code of which we make openly available. Our platform is designed to be accurate, reliable, fast, and versatile in integrating new materials, making it suitable for everyday laboratory work. The implementation allows fully automated scanning and analysis of wafers with an average inference time of 100 ms for images of 2.3 Mpixels. The developed detection algorithm is based on a combination of the flakes' optical contrast toward the substrate and their geometric shape. We demonstrate that it is able to detect the majority of exfoliated flakes of various materials, with an average recall (AR50) between 67% and 89%. We also show that the algorithm can be trained with as few as five flakes of a given material, which we demonstrate for the examples of few-layer graphene, WSe$_2$, MoSe$_2$, CrI$_3$, 1T-TaS$_2$ and hexagonal BN. Our platform has been tested over a two-year period, during which more than $10^6$ images of multiple different materials were acquired by over 30 individual researchers.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗