SearcharxivSearch

arXiv subjects

M. Mucha-Kruczynski

Publications and source records attributed to M. Mucha-Kruczynski.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Controlling charge density order in 2H-TaSe$_{2}$ using a van Hove singularity

We report on the interplay between a van Hove singularity and a charge density wave state in 2H-TaSe$_{2}$. We use angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to investigate changes in the Fermi surface of this material under surface doping with potassium. At high doping, we observe modifications which imply the disappearance of the $(3\times 3)$ charge density wave and formation of a different correlated state. Using a tight-binding-based approach as well as an effective model, we explain our observations as a consequence of coupling between the single-particle Lifshitz transition during which the Fermi level passes a van Hove singularity and the charge density order. In this scenario, the high electronic density of states associated with the van Hove singularity induces a change in the periodicity of the charge density wave from the known $(3\times 3)$ to a new $(2\times 2)$ superlattice.

cond-mat.str-el

ARPES signatures of few-layer twistronic graphenes

Diverse emergent correlated electron phenomena have been observed in twisted graphene layers due to electronic interactions with the moiré superlattice potential. Many electronic structure predictions have been reported exploring this new field, but with few momentum-resolved electronic structure measurements to test them. Here we use angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) to study the twist-dependent ($1^\circ < θ< 8^\circ$) electronic band structure of few-layer graphenes, including twisted bilayer, monolayer-on-bilayer, and double-bilayer graphene (tDBG). Direct comparison is made between experiment and theory, using a hybrid $\textbf{k}\cdot\textbf{p}$ model for interlayer coupling and implementing photon-energy-dependent phase shifts for photo-electrons from consecutive layers to simulate ARPES spectra. Quantitative agreement between experiment and theory is found across twist angles, stacking geometries, and back-gate voltages, validating the models and revealing displacement field induced gap openings in twisted graphenes. However, for tDBG at $θ=1.5\pm0.2^\circ$, close to the predicted magic-angle of $θ=1.3^\circ$, a flat band is found near the Fermi-level with measured bandwidth of $E_w = 31\pm5$ meV. Analysis of the gap between the flat band and the next valence band shows significant deviations between experiment ($Δ_h=46\pm5$meV) and the theoretical model ($Δ_h=5$meV), indicative of the importance of lattice relaxation in this regime.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Electronic Raman Scattering in Twistronic Few-Layer Graphene

We study electronic contribution to the Raman scattering signals of two-, three- and four-layer graphene with layers at one of the interfaces twisted by a small angle with respect to each other. We find that the Raman spectra of these systems feature two peaks produced by van Hove singularities in moiré minibands of twistronic graphene, one related to direct hybridization of Dirac states, and the other resulting from band folding caused by moiré superlattice. The positions of both peaks strongly depend on the twist angle, so that their detection can be used for non-invasive characterization of the twist, even in hBN-encapsulated structures.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Visualizing Orbital Content of Electronic Bands in Anisotropic 2D Semiconducting ReSe$_{2}$

Many properties of layered materials change as they are thinned from their bulk forms down to single layers, with examples including indirect-to-direct band gap transition in 2H semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides as well as thickness-dependent changes in the valence band structure in post-transition metal monochalcogenides and black phosphorus. Here, we use angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to study the electronic band structure of monolayer ReSe$_{2}$, a semiconductor with a distorted 1T structure and in-plane anisotropy. By changing the polarization of incoming photons, we demonstrate that for ReSe$_{2}$, in contrast to the 2H materials, the out-of-plane transition metal $d_{z^{2}}$ and chalcogen $p_{z}$ orbitals do not contribute significantly to the top of the valence band which explains the reported weak changes in the electronic structure of this compound as a function of layer number. We estimate a band gap of 1.7 eV in pristine ReSe$_{2}$ using scanning tunneling spectroscopy and explore the implications on the gap following surface-doping with potassium. A lower bound of 1.4 eV is estimated for the gap in the fully doped case, suggesting that doping-dependent many-body effects significantly affect the electronic properties of ReSe$_{2}$. Our results, supported by density functional theory calculations, provide insight into the mechanisms behind polarization-dependent optical properties of rhenium dichalcogenides and highlight their place amongst two-dimensional crystals.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Spectroscopic Signatures of Electronic Excitations in Raman Scattering in Thin Films of Rhombohedral Graphite

Rhombohedral graphite features peculiar electronic properties, including persistence of low-energy surface bands of a topological nature. Here, we study the contribution of electron-hole excitations towards inelastic light scattering in thin films of rhombohedral graphite. We show that, in contrast to the featureless electron-hole contribution towards Raman spectrum of graphitic films with Bernal stacking, the inelastic light scattering accompanied by electron-hole excitations in crystals with rhombohedral stacking produces distinct features in the Raman signal which can be used both to identify the stacking and to determine the number of layers in the film.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Zero-energy modes and valley asymmetry in the Hofstadter spectrum of bilayer graphene van der Waals heterostructures with hBN

We investigate the magnetic minibands of a heterostructure consisting of bilayer graphene (BLG) and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) by numerically diagonalizing a two-band Hamiltonian that describes electrons in BLG in the presence of a moire potential. Due to inversion-symmetry breaking characteristic for the moire potential, the valley symmetry of the spectrum is broken, but despite this, the zero-energy Landau level in BLG survives, albeit with reduced degeneracy. In addition, we derive effective models for the low-energy features in the magnetic minibands and demonstrate the appearance of secondary Dirac points in the valence band, which we confirm by numerical simulations. Then, we analyze how single-particle gaps in the fractal energy spectrum produce a sequence of incompressible states observable under a variation of carrier density and magnetic field.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Moire miniband features in the angle-resolved photoemission spectra of graphene/hBN heterostructures

We identify features in the angle-resolved photoemission spectra (ARPES) arising from the periodic pattern characteristic for graphene heterostructure with hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). For this, we model ARPES spectra and intensity maps for five microscopic models used previously to describe moire superlattice in graphene/hBN systems. We show that detailed analysis of these features can be used to pin down the microscopic mechanism of the interaction between graphene and hBN. We also analyze how the presence of a moire-periodic strain in graphene or scattering of photoemitted electrons off hBN can be distinguished from the miniband formation.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Infrared absorption of closely-aligned heterostructures of monolayer and bilayer graphene with hexagonal boron nitride

We model optical absorption of monolayer and bilayer graphene on hexagonal boron nitride for the case of closely-aligned crystal lattices. We show that perturbations with different spatial symmetry can lead to similar absorption spectra. We suggest that a study of the absorption spectra as a function of the doping for almost completely full first miniband is necessary to extract meaningful information about the moire characteristics from optical absorption measurements and to distinguish between various theoretical proposals for the physically realistic interaction. Also, for bilayer graphene, the ability to compare spectra for the opposite signs of electric-field-induced interlayer asymmetry might provide additional information about the moire parameters.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Moire superlattice effects in graphene/boron-nitride van der Waals heterostructures

Van der Waals heterostructures of graphene and hexagonal boron nitride feature a moiré superlattice for graphene's Dirac electrons. Here, we review the effects generated by this superlattice, including a specific miniband structure featuring gaps and secondary Dirac points, and a fractal spectrum of magnetic minibands known as Hofstadter's butterfly.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Dirac edges of fractal magnetic minibands in graphene with hexagonal moire superlattices

We find a systematic reappearance of massive Dirac features at the edges of consecutive minibands formed at magnetic fields B_{p/q}= pϕ_0/(qS) providing rational magnetic flux through a unit cell of the moire superlattice created by a hexagonal substrate for electrons in graphene. The Dirac-type features in the minibands at B=B_{p/q} determine a hierarchy of gaps in the surrounding fractal spectrum, and show that these minibands have topological insulator properties. Using the additional $q$-fold degeneracy of magnetic minibands at B_{p/q}, we trace the hierarchy of the gaps to their manifestation in the form of incompressible states upon variation of the carrier density and magnetic field.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Heterostructure bilayer graphene-hBN: Interplay between misalignment, interlayer asymmetry, and trigonal warping

We study the superlattice minibands produced by the interplay between moiré pattern induced by hexagonal BN substrate on graphene layer and the interlayer coupling in bilayer graphene with Bernal stacking (BLG). We compare moiré miniband features in BLG, where they are affected by the interlayer asymmetry of BLG-hBN heterostructure and trigonal warping characteristic for electrons in Bernal-stacked bilayers with those found in monolayer graphene.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Moiré minibands in graphene heterostructures with almost commensurate sqrt3 x sqrt3 hexagonal crystals

We present a phenomenological theory of the low energy moiré minibands of Dirac electrons in graphene placed on an almost commensurate hexagonal underlay with a unit cell pproximately three times larger than that of graphene.A slight incommensurability results in a periodically modulated intervalley scattering for electrons in graphene. In contrast to the perfectly commensurate Kekulé distortion of graphene, such supperlattice perturbation leaves the zero energy Dirac cones intact, but is able to open a band gap at the edge of the first moiré subbband, asymmetrically in the conduction and valence bands.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Cloning of Dirac fermions in graphene superlattices

Lateral superlattices have attracted major interest as this may allow one to modify spectra of two dimensional electron systems and, ultimately, create materials with tailored electronic properties. Previously, it proved difficult to realize superlattices with sufficiently short periodicity and weak disorder, and most of the observed features could be explained in terms of commensurate cyclotron orbits. Evidence for the formation of superlattice minibands (so called Hofstadter's butterfly) has been limited to the observation of new low-field oscillations and an internal structure within Landau levels. Here we report transport properties of graphene placed on a boron nitride substrate and accurately aligned along its crystallographic directions. The substrate's moire potential leads to profound changes in graphene's electronic spectrum. Second-generation Dirac points appear as pronounced peaks in resistivity accompanied by reversal of the Hall effect. The latter indicates that the sign of the effective mass changes within graphene's conduction and valence bands. Quantizing magnetic fields lead to Zak-type cloning of the third generation of Dirac points that are observed as numerous neutrality points in fields where a unit fraction of the flux quantum pierces the superlattice unit cell. Graphene superlattices open a venue to study the rich physics expected for incommensurable quantum systems and illustrate the possibility to controllably modify electronic spectra of 2D atomic crystals by using their crystallographic alignment within van der Waals heterostuctures.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Generic Miniband Structure of Graphene on a Hexagonal Substrate

Using a general symmetry-based approach, we provide a classification of generic miniband structures for electrons in graphene placed on substrates with the hexagonal Bravais symmetry. In particular, we identify conditions at which the first moiré miniband is separated from the rest of the spectrum by either one or a group of three isolated mini Dirac points and is not obscured by dispersion surfaces coming from other minibands. In such cases the Hall coefficient exhibits two distinct alternations of its sign as a function of charge carrier density.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Pseudo-magnetic field distribution and pseudo-Landau levels in suspended graphene flakes

Combining the tight-binding approximation and linear elasticity theory for a planar membrane, we investigate stretching of a graphene flake assuming that two opposite edges of the sample are clamped by the contacts. We show that, depending on the aspect ratio of the flake and its orientation, gapped states may form in the membrane in the vicinity of the contacts. This gap in the pre-contact region should be biggest for the armchair orientation of the flake and width to length ratio of around 1.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Landau levels in deformed bilayer graphene at low magnetic fields

We review the effect of uniaxial strain on the low-energy electronic dispersion and Landau level structure of bilayer graphene. Based on the tight-binding approach, we derive a strain-induced term in the low-energy Hamiltonian and show how strain affects the low-energy electronic band structure. Depending on the magnitude and direction of applied strain, we identify three regimes of qualitatively different electronic dispersions. We also show that in a weak magnetic field, sufficient strain results in the filling factor ff=+-4 being the most stable in the quantum Hall effect measurement, instead of ff=+-8 in unperturbed bilayer at a weak magnetic field. To mention, in one of the strain regimes, the activation gap at ff=+-4 is, down to very low fields, weakly dependent on the strength of the magnetic field.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Interaction-Driven Spectrum Reconstruction in Bilayer Graphene

The nematic phase transition in electronic liquids, driven by Coulomb interactions, represents a new class of strongly correlated electronic ground states. We studied suspended samples of bilayer graphene, annealed so that it achieves very high quasiparticle mobilities. Bilayer graphene is a truly two-dimensional material with complex chiral electronic spectra and the high quality of our samples allowed us to observe strong spectrum reconstructions and electron topological transitions that can be attributed to a nematic phase transition and a decrease in rotational symmetry. These results are especially surprising because no interaction effects have been observed so far in bilayer graphene in the absence of an applied magnetic field.

cond-mat.mes-hall

Spectral features due to inter-Landau-level transitions in the Raman spectrum of bilayer graphene

We investigate the contribution of the low-energy electronic excitations towards the Raman spectrum of bilayer graphene for the incoming photon energy Omega >> 1eV. Starting with the four-band tight-binding model, we derive an effective scattering amplitude that can be incorporated into the commonly used two-band approximation. Due to the influence of the high-energy bands, this effective scattering amplitude is different from the contact interaction amplitude obtained within the two-band model alone. We then calculate the spectral density of the inelastic light scattering accompanied by the excitation of electron-hole pairs in bilayer graphene. In the absence of a magnetic field, due to the parabolic dispersion of the low-energy bands in a bilayer crystal, this contribution is constant and in doped structures has a threshold at twice the Fermi energy. In an external magnetic field, the dominant Raman-active modes are the n_{-} to n_{+} inter-Landau-level transitions with crossed polarisation of in/out photons. We estimate the quantum efficiency of a single n_{-} to n_{+} transition in the magnetic field of 10T as I_{n_{-} to n_{+}}~10^{-12}.

cond-mat.mes-hall