arXiv subjects

G. Trambly de Laissardière

Publications and source records attributed to G. Trambly de Laissardière.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Experimental evidence of the topological obstruction in twisted bilayer graphene

The rich physics of magic angle twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) results from the Coulomb interactions of electrons in flat bands of non-trivial topology. While the bands' dispersion is well characterized, accessing their topology remains an experimental challenge. Recent measurements established the local density of states (LDOS) as a topological observable. Here, we use scanning tunnelling microscopy to investigate the LDOS of TBG near a defect. We observe characteristic patterns resulting from the Dirac cones having the same chirality within a moiré valley. At higher energies, we observe the Lifshitz transition associated with the Dirac cones mixing. Our measurements provide a full characterization of TBG's band structure, confirming the main features of the continuum model including the renormalization of the Fermi velocity, the role of emergent symmetries and the topological obstruction of the wavefunctions.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Giant atomic swirl in graphene bilayers with biaxial heterostrain

The study of moiré engineering started with the advent of van der Waals heterostructures in which stacking two-dimensional layers with different lattice constants leads to a moiré pattern controlling their electronic properties. The field entered a new era when it was found that adjusting the twist between two graphene layers led to strongly-correlated-electron physics and topological effects associated with atomic relaxation. Twist is now used routinely to adjust the properties of two-dimensional materials. Here, we investigate a new type of moiré superlattice in bilayer graphene when one layer is biaxially strained with respect to the other - so-called biaxial heterostrain. Scanning tunneling microscopy measurements uncover spiraling electronic states associated with a novel symmetry-breaking atomic reconstruction at small biaxial heterostrain. Atomistic calculations using experimental parameters as inputs reveal that a giant atomic swirl forms around regions of aligned stacking to reduce the mechanical energy of the bilayer. Tight-binding calculations performed on the relaxed structure show that the observed electronic states decorate spiraling domain wall solitons as required by topology. This study establishes biaxial heterostrain as an important parameter to be harnessed for the next step of moiré engineering in van der Waals multilayers.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Heterostrain rules the flat-bands in magic-angle twisted graphene layers

The moiré of twisted graphene bilayers can generate flat bands in which charge carriers do not posses enough kinetic energy to escape Coulomb interactions with each other leading to the formation of novel strongly correlated electronic states. This exceptionally rich physics relies on the precise arrangement between the layers.We survey published Scanning Tunnelling Microscope (STM) measurements to prove that near the magic angle, native heterostrain, the relative deformations between the layers, dominates twist in determining the flat bands. This is demonstrated at large doping where electronic correlations have a weak effect and where we also show that tip-induced strain can have a strong influence. In the opposite situation of low doping, we find that electronic correlation further normalize the flat bands in a way that strongly depends on experimental details.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Electronic spectrum of twisted graphene layers under heterostrain

We demonstrate that stacking layered materials allows a novel type of strain engineering where each layer is strained independently, which we call heterostrain. We combine detailed structural and spectroscopic measurements with tight-binding calculations to show that small uniaxial heterostrain suppresses Dirac cones and leads to the emergence of flat bands in twisted graphene layers (TGLs). Moreover, we demonstrate that heterostrain reconstructs much more severely the energy spectrum of TGLs than homostrain for which both layers are strained identically ; a result which should apply to virtually all van der Waals structure opening exciting possibilities for straintronics with 2D materials.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Sub-diffusive electronic states in octagonal tiling

We study the quantum diffusion of charge carriers in octagonal tilings. Our numerical results show a power law decay of the wave-packet spreading, $L(t) \propto t^β$, characteristic of critical states in quasicrystals at large time $t$. For many energies states are sub-diffusive, i.e. $β< 0.5$, and thus conductivity increases when the amount of defects (static defects and/or temperature) increases.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

Numerical studies of confined states in rotated bilayers of graphene

Rotated graphene multilayers form a new class of graphene related systems with electronic properties that drastically depend on the rotation angles. It has been shown that bilayers behave like two isolated graphene planes for large rotation angles. For smaller angles, states in the Dirac cones belonging to the two layers interact resulting in the appearance of two van Hove singularities. States become localised as the rotation angle decreases and the two van Hove singularities merge into one peak at the Dirac energy. Here we go further and consider bilayers with very small rotation angles. In this case, well defined regions of AA stacking exist in the bilayer supercell and we show that states are confined in these regions for energies in the [-γ_t, +γ_t] range with γ_t the interplane mean interaction. As a consequence, the local densities of states show discrete peaks for energies different from the Dirac energy.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Unravelling the intrinsic and robust nature of van Hove singularities in twisted bilayer graphene

Extensive scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy experiments complemented by first principles and parameterized tight binding calculations provide a clear answer to the existence, origin and robustness of van Hove singularities (vHs) in twisted graphene layers. Our results are conclusive: vHs due to interlayer coupling are ubiquitously present in a broad range (from 1° to 10°) of rotation angles in our graphene on 6H-SiC(000-1) samples. From the variation of the energy separation of the vHs with rotation angle we are able to recover the Fermi velocity of a graphene monolayer as well as the strength of the interlayer interaction. The robustness of the vHs is assessed both by experiments, which show that they survive in the presence of a third graphene layer, and calculations, which test the role of the periodic modulation and absolute value of the interlayer distance. Finally, we clarify the origin of the related moiré corrugation detected in the STM images.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Electronic transport in AlMn(Si) and AlCuFe quasicrystals: Break-down of the semiclassical model

The semi-classical Bloch-Boltzmann theory is at the heart of our understanding of conduction in solids, ranging from metals to semi-conductors. Physical systems that are beyond the range of applicability of this theory are thus of fundamental interest. It appears that in quasicrystals and related complex metallic alloys, a new type of break-down of this theory operates. This phenomenon is related to the specific propagation of electrons. We develop a theory of quantum transport that applies to a normal ballistic law but also to these specific diffusion laws. As we show phenomenological models based on this theory describe correctly the anomalous conductivity in quasicrystals. Ab-initio calculations performed on approximants confirm also the validity of this anomalous quantum diffusion scheme. This provides us with an ab-initio model of transport in approximants such as alpha-AlMnSi and AlCuFe 1/1 cubic approximant.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2002

Indirect Mn-Mn pair interaction induces pseudogap in density of states of Al(Si)-Mn approximants

The effect on the electronic structure of an indirect Mn-Mn interaction mediated by the valence states and the sp-d hybridisation is presented. In Al(rich)-Mn phases related to quasicrystals (Al12Mn, o-Al6Mn, alpha-Al9Mn2Si), this indirect interaction creates a Hume-Rothery pseudogap in the density of states together with a minimisation of the band energy. It is shown that Mn-Mn interaction up to distances around 1.0-2.0 nm plays an essential role in stabilizing related quasicrystal structures.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗