arXiv subjects

Hongxia Xue

Publications and source records attributed to Hongxia Xue.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Observation of Unconventional Ferroelectricity in Non-Moir'\e Graphene on Hexagonal Boron Nitride Boundaries and Interfaces

Interfacial interactions in two parallel-stacked hexagonal boron-nitride (hBN) layers facilitate sliding ferroelectricity, enabling novel device functionalities. Additionally, when Bernal or twisted bilayer graphene is aligned with an hBN layer, unconventional ferroelectric behavior was observed, though its precise origin remains unclear. Here, we propose an alternative approach to engineering such an unconventional ferroelectricity in graphene-hBN van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures by creating specific types of hBN boundaries and interfaces. We found that the unconventional ferroelectricity can occur--without the alignments at graphene-hBN or hBN-hBN interfaces--when there are hBN edges or interfaces with line defects. By systematically analyzing the gate dependence of mobile and localized charges, we identified key characteristics of localized states that underlie the observed unconventional ferroelectricity, informing future studies. These findings highlight the complexity of the interfacial interactions in graphene/hBN systems, and demonstrate the potential for defect engineering in vdW heterostructures.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Observation of Cavity-Mediated Nonlinear Landau Fan and Modified Landau Level Degeneracy in Graphene Quantum Transport

Recent studies on cavity-coupled two-dimensional electron gas demonstrate that vacuum-field engineering can tailor electronic transport properties of materials. By achieving ultra-strong coupling between a terahertz resonator and mesoscopic graphene, we demonstrate that cavity vacuum fields can alter the effective degeneracies of Landau levels, resulting in a nonlinear Landau fan diagram for massless Dirac fermions while preserving quantum-Hall quantization. Specifically, by leveraging graphene's gate-tunability, we observe that quantum-Hall features, minimum longitudinal and quantized Hall conductance for a given filling factor, occur at carrier densities reduced by more than 20 percent compared to systems without cavity. Theoretical analysis attributes this effect to the virtual cavity photon mediated transitions between the non-equidistant Landau levels in graphene, significantly reducing their effective degeneracy. This study paves the way for investigating cavity quantum electrodynamics in highly tunable, atomically thin two-dimensional crystals.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Coulomb drag in graphene/hBN/graphene moir\'e heterostructures

We report on the observation of Coulomb drag between graphene-hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) moir\'{e} heterostructure with a moir\'{e} wavelength of $\sim$14 nm and an intrinsic graphene with a lattice constant of $\sim$0.25 nm. By tuning carrier densities of each graphene layer independently, we find that the charge carriers in moir\'{e} mini-bands, i.e., near the satellite Dirac point (sDP), can be coupled with the massless Fermions near the original Dirac point (oDP), strongly enough to generate a finite drag resistivity. At high temperature ($T$) and large density ($n$), the drag resistivities near both oDP and sDP follow a typical $n^{-\alpha}$ ($\alpha=1.3\sim1.7$) and $T^2$ power law dependence as expected for the momentum transfer process and it also satisfies the layer reciprocity. In contrast, at low $T$, the layer reciprocity is broken in both oDP-oDP and sDP-oDP coupled regions that suggest dominant energy drag. Furthermore, quantitatively, the drag resistivities near sDPs are smaller than those near oDP and they deviate from $T^2$ dependence below $\sim$100 K. These results suggest that the coupling between the carriers in moir\'{e} mini-bands and those in original Dirac bands may not be of a simple Fermi liquid nature.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Emergence of moir\'e superlattice potential in graphene by twisted-hBN layers

Moir\'e superlattices formed in stacks of two or more 2D crystals with similar lattice structures have recently become excellent platforms to reveal new physics in low-dimensional systems. They are, however, highly sensitive to the angle and lattice constant differences between the associated crystals, limiting the range of the material choice and the possible moir\'e patterns for a given 2D crystal. Here, we present a novel approach to realize an atomically flat substrate with a periodic moir\'e pattern that can induce the moir\'e potential on the material on top by van der Waals (vdW) interactions, without suffering from the lattice and angle mismatch. By constructing a twisted hBN (thBN) moir\'e substrate at an angle of about 1$^\circ$, we show that the graphene on top, aligned around 15$^\circ$ with the neighboring hBN layers, exhibits typical transport properties under a hexagonal moir\'e potential, including multiple satellite Dirac points (DPs), Hofstadter butterfly effect, and Brown-Zak oscillations. All features point to the existence of the moir\'e potential in graphene formed by thBN with $\sim$1$^\circ$ twist angle. Further statistical study shows that the twist from a parallel interface between the hBN layers is critical to induce the moir\'e potential. Our study demonstrates that the thBN moir\'e substrate can be used to investigate moir\'e physics in arbitrary materials without being constrained by their lattice constants.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Landau-level spectrum and the effect of spin-orbit coupling in monolayer graphene on transition metal dichalcogenides

In graphene on transition metal dichalcogenides, proximity-induced Rashba and spin-valley Zeeman SOCs can coexist that modify graphene's electronic band differently. Here, we show that the Landau levels (LLs) are also affected by these SOCs distinctively enough to estimate their relative strengths from the Landau fan diagram. Using a simple theoretical model, we calculated the LL spectrums of graphene for different SOC strengths, and found that when the total SOC is strong enough (i.e., when it is comparable to the half of the energy gap between the LLs of an intrinsic graphene), the corresponding LLs will split and cross with others depending sensitively on the relative strengths of the SOC terms. To demonstrate how one can use it to estimate the relative SOC strengths, we first identified the four key features that are well separated from the complex background and can be compared with experiment directly, and used them to show that in our sample, the Rashba SOC is stronger than the spin-valley Zeeman SOC that is consistent with other spectroscopic measurements. Our study therefore provides a simple and practical strategy to analyze the LL spectrum in graphene with SOC before carrying out more in-depth measurements.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Scratching lithography, manipulation, and soldering of 2D materials using microneedle probes

We demonstrate a facile technique to scratch, manipulate, and solder exfoliated flakes of layered 2D materials using a microneedle probe attached to the precision xyz manipulators under an optical microscope. We show that the probe can be used to scratch the flakes into a designated shape with a precision at micrometer scales, move, rotate, roll-up, and exfoliate the flakes to help building various types of heterostructures, and form electric contacts by directly drawing/placing thin metal wires over the flake. All these can be done without lithography and etching steps that often take long processing time and involve harmful chemicals. Moreover, the setup can be easily integrated into any van der Waals assembly systems such as those in a glove box for handling air/chemical-sensitive materials. The microneedle technique demonstrated in this study therefore enables quick fabrications of devices from diverse 2D materials for testing their properties at an early stage of research before conducting more advanced studies and helps to build different types of van der Waals heterostructures.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2023

Ballistic transport spectroscopy of spin-orbit-coupled bands in monolayer graphene on WSe$_2$

Van der Waals interactions with transition metal dichalcogenides was shown to induce strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in graphene, offering great promises to combine large experimental flexibility of graphene with unique tuning capabilities of the SOC that can rotate spin by moving electrons or vice versa. Here, we probe SOC-driven band splitting and electron dynamics in graphene on WSe$_2$ by measuring ballistic transverse magnetic focusing. We found a clear splitting in the first focusing peak whose evolution in charge density and magnetic field is well reproduced by calculations using SOC strength of ~13 meV and no splitting in the second peak that indicates stronger Rashba SOC. A possible suppression of electron-electron scatterings was also found in temperature dependence measurement. Further, we found that Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations exhibit SOC strength of ~3.4 meV, suggesting that it probes different electron dynamics, calling for new theory. Our study demonstrates an interesting possibility to exploit ballistic electron motion pronounced in graphene for emerging spin-orbitronics.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗