arXiv subjects

Shuigang Xu

Publications and source records attributed to Shuigang Xu.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Interfacial ferroelectricity in marginally twisted 2D semiconductors

Twisted heterostructures of two-dimensional crystals offer almost unlimited scope for the design of novel metamaterials. Here we demonstrate a room-temperature ferroelectric semiconductor that is assembled using mono- or few- layer MoS2. These van der Waals heterostructures feature broken inversion symmetry, which, together with the asymmetry of atomic arrangement at the interface of two 2D crystals, enables ferroelectric domains with alternating out-of-plane polarisation arranged into a twist-controlled network. The latter can be moved by applying out-of-plane electrical fields, as visualized in situ using channelling contrast electron microscopy. The interfacial charge transfer for the observed ferroelectric domains is quantified using Kelvin probe force microscopy and agrees well with theoretical calculations. The movement of domain walls and their bending rigidity also agrees well with our modelling results. Furthermore, we demonstrate proof-of-principle field-effect transistors, where the channel resistance exhibits a pronounced hysteresis governed by pinning of ferroelectric domain walls. Our results show a potential venue towards room temperature electronic and optoelectronic semiconductor devices with built-in ferroelectric memory functions.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Bridging the gap between atomically thin semiconductors and metal leads

Electrically interfacing atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenide semiconductors (TMDSCs) with metal leads is challenging because of undesired interface barriers, which have drastically constrained the electrical performance of TMDSC devices for exploring their unconventional physical properties and realizing potential electronic applications. Here we demonstrate a strategy to achieve nearly barrier-free electrical contacts with few-layer TMDSCs by engineering interfacial bonding distortion. The carrier-injection efficiency of such electrical junction is substantially increased with robust ohmic behaviors from room to cryogenic temperatures. The performance enhancements of TMDSC field-effect transistors are well reflected by the ultralow contact resistance (down to 90 Ohm um in MoS2, towards the quantum limit), the ultrahigh field-effect mobility (up to 358,000 cm2V-1s-1 in WSe2) and the prominent transport characteristics at cryogenic temperatures. This method also offers new possibilities of the local manipulation of structures and electronic properties for TMDSC device design.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2021

Tunnel field-effect transistors for sensitive terahertz detection

The rectification of electromagnetic waves to direct currents is a crucial process for energy harvesting, beyond-5G wireless communications, ultra-fast science, and observational astronomy. As the radiation frequency is raised to the sub-terahertz (THz) domain, ac-to-dc conversion by conventional electronics becomes challenging and requires alternative rectification protocols. Here we address this challenge by tunnel field-effect transistors made of bilayer graphene (BLG). Taking advantage of BLG's electrically tunable band structure, we create a lateral tunnel junction and couple it to an antenna exposed to THz radiation. The incoming radiation is then down-converted by the tunnel junction nonlinearity, resulting in high-responsivity (> 4 kV/W) and low-noise (0.2 pW/$\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$}) detection. We demonstrate how switching from intraband Ohmic to interband tunneling regime can raise detectors' responsivity by few orders of magnitude, in agreement with the developed theory. Our work demonstrates a potential application of tunnel transistors for THz detection and reveals BLG as a promising platform therefor.

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arXiv2020

In situ twistronics of van der Waals heterostructures

In van der Waals heterostructures, electronic bands of two-dimensional (2D) materials, their nontrivial topology, and electron-electron interactions can be dramatically changed by a moire pattern induced by twist angles between different layers. Such process is referred to as twistronics, where the tuning of twist angle can be realized through mechanical manipulation of 2D materials. Here we demonstrate an experimental technique that can achieve in situ dynamical rotation and manipulation of 2D materials in van der Waals heterostructures. Using this technique we fabricated heterostructures where graphene is perfectly aligned with both top and bottom encapsulating layers of hexagonal boron nitride. Our technique enables twisted 2D material systems in one single stack with dynamically tunable optical, mechanical, and electronic properties.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Tunable van Hove Singularities and Correlated States in Twisted Trilayer Graphene

Understanding and tuning correlated states is of great interest and significance to modern condensed matter physics. The recent discovery of unconventional superconductivity and Mott-like insulating states in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (tBLG) presents a unique platform to study correlation phenomena, in which the Coulomb energy dominates over the quenched kinetic energy as a result of hybridized flat bands. Extending this approach to the case of twisted multilayer graphene would allow even higher control over the band structure because of the reduced symmetry of the system. Here, we study electronic transport properties in twisted trilayer graphene (tTLG, bilayer on top of monolayer graphene heterostructure). We observed the formation of van Hove singularities which are highly tunable by twist angle and displacement field and can cause strong correlation effects under optimum conditions, including superconducting states. We provide basic theoretical interpretation of the observed electronic structure.

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arXiv2019

Composite super-moiré lattices in double aligned graphene heterostructures

When two-dimensional atomic crystals are brought into close proximity to form a van der Waals heterostructure, neighbouring crystals can start influencing each others electronic properties. Of particular interest is the situation when the periodicity of the two crystals closely match and a moiré pattern forms, which results in specific electron scattering, reconstruction of electronic and excitonic spectra, crystal reconstruction, and many other effects. Thus, formation of moiré patterns is a viable tool of controlling the electronic properties of 2D materials. At the same time, the difference in the interatomic distances for the two crystals combined, determines the range in which the electronic spectrum is reconstructed, and thus is a barrier to the low energy regime. Here we present a way which allows spectrum reconstruction at all energies. By using graphene which is aligned simultaneously to two hexagonal boron nitride layers, one can make electrons scatter in the differential moiré pattern, which can have arbitrarily small wavevector and, thus results in spectrum reconstruction at arbitrarily low energies. We demonstrate that the strength of such a potential relies crucially on the atomic reconstruction of graphene within the differential moiré super-cell. Such structures offer further opportunity in tuning the electronic spectra of two-dimensional materials.

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arXiv2019

Electronic phase separation in topological surface states of rhombohedral graphite

Of the two stable forms of graphite, hexagonal (HG) and rhombohedral (RG), the former is more common and has been studied extensively. RG is less stable, which so far precluded its detailed investigation, despite many theoretical predictions about the abundance of exotic interaction-induced physics. Advances in van der Waals heterostructure technology have now allowed us to make high-quality RG films up to 50 graphene layers thick and study their transport properties. We find that the bulk electronic states in such RG are gapped and, at low temperatures, electron transport is dominated by surface states. Because of topological protection, the surface states are robust and of high quality, allowing the observation of the quantum Hall effect, where RG exhibits phase transitions between gapless semimetallic phase and gapped quantum spin Hall phase with giant Berry curvature. An energy gap can also be opened in the surface states by breaking their inversion symmetry via applying a perpendicular electric field. Moreover, in RG films thinner than 4 nm, a gap is present even without an external electric field. This spontaneous gap opening shows pronounced hysteresis and other signatures characteristic of electronic phase separation, which we attribute to emergence of strongly-correlated electronic surface states.

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arXiv2019

Stacking Order in Graphite Films Controlled by Van der Waals Technology

In graphite crystals, layers of graphene reside in three equivalent, but distinct, stacking positions typically referred to as A, B, and C projections. The order in which the layers are stacked defines the electronic structure of the crystal, providing an exciting degree of freedom which can be exploited for designing graphitic materials with unusual properties including predicted high-temperature superconductivity and ferromagnetism. However, the lack of control of the stacking sequence limits most research to the stable ABA form of graphite. Here we demonstrate a strategy to control the stacking order using van der Waals technology. To this end, we first visualise the distribution of stacking domains in graphite films and then perform directional encapsulation of ABC-rich graphite crystallites with hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). We found that hBN-encapsulation which is introduced parallel to the graphite zigzag edges preserves ABC stacking, while encapsulation along the armchair edges transforms the stacking to ABA. The technique presented here should facilitate new research on the important properties of ABC graphite.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Intrinsic valley Hall transport in atomically thin MoS2

Electrons hopping in two-dimensional honeycomb lattices possess a valley degree of freedom in addition to charge and spin. In the absence of inversion symmetry, these systems were predicted to exhibit opposite Hall effects for electrons from different valleys. Such valley Hall effects have been achieved only by extrinsic means, such as substrate coupling, dual gating, and light illuminating. Here, we report the first observation of intrinsic valley Hall transport without any extrinsic symmetry breaking in the non-centrosymmetric monolayer and trilayer MoS2, evidenced by considerable nonlocal resistance that scales cubically with local resistance. Such a hallmark survives even at room temperature with a valley diffusion length at micron scale. By contrast, no valley Hall signal is observed in the centrosymmetric bilayer MoS2. Our work elucidates the topological quantum origin of valley Hall effects and marks a significant step towards the purely electrical control of valley degree of freedom in topological valleytronics.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Probing Landau levels of strongly interacting massive Dirac electrons in layer-polarized MoS$_2$

Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides are recently emerged 2D electronic systems with various novel properties, such as spin-valley locking, circular dichroism, valley Hall effects, Ising superconductivity. The reduced dimensionality and large effective masses further produce unconventional many-body interaction effects. Although recent hole transport measurements in WSe$_2$ indicate strong interactions in the valence bands, many-body interaction effects, particularly in the conduction bands, remain elusive to date. Here, for the first time, we perform transport measurements up to a magnetic field of $29$T to study the massive Dirac electron Landau levels (LL) in layer-polarized MoS$_2$ samples with mobilities of $22000$cm$^2$/(V$\cdot$s) at $1.5$K and densities of $\sim10^{12}$cm$^{-2}$. With decreasing the density, we observe LL crossing induced valley ferrimagnet-to-ferromagnet transitions, as a result of the interaction enhancement of the g-factor from $5.64$ to $21.82$. Near integer ratios of Zeeman-to-cyclotron energies, we discover LL anticrossings due to the formation of quantum Hall Ising ferromagnets, the valley polarizations of which appear to be reversible by tuning the density or an in-plane magnetic field. Our results provide compelling evidence for many-body interaction effects in the conduction bands of monolayer MoS$_2$ and establish a fertile ground for exploring strongly correlated phenomena of massive Dirac electrons.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Probing strong interactions in p-type few-layer WSe$_2$ by density-dependent Landau level crossing

Atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) such as MoS$_2$ and WSe$_2$ are emerging as a new platform for exploring many-body effects. Coulomb interactions are markedly enhanced in these materials because of the reduced screening and the large Wigner-Seitz radii. Although many-body excitonic effects in TMDCs have been extensively studied by optical means, not until recently did probing their strongly correlated electronic effects become possible in transport. Here, in p-type few-layer WSe$_2$ we observe highly density-dependent quantum Hall states of Γ valley holes below 12 T, whose predominant sequences alternate between odd- and even-integers. By tilting the magnetic field to induce Landau level crossings, we show that the strong Coulomb interaction enhances the Zeeman-to-cyclotron energy ratio from 2.67 to 3.55 as the density is reduced from 5.7 to 4.0$\times$10$^{12}$ cm$^{-2}$, giving rise to the even-odd alternation. Unprecedentedly, this indicates a 4.8 times enhancement of the g-factor over its band theory value at a density as high as 4.0$\times$10$^{12}$ cm$^{-2}$. Our findings unambiguously demonstrate that p-type few-layer WSe$_2$ is a superior platform for exploring strongly correlated electronic phenomena, opening a new perspective for realizing the elusive Wigner crystallization at a moderate density.

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arXiv2017

Isolation and Characterization of Few-layer Manganese Thiophosphite

This work reports an experimental study on an antiferromagnetic honeycomb lattice of MnPS$_3$ that couples the valley degree of freedom to a macroscopic antiferromagnetic order. The crystal structure of MnPS$_3$ is identified by high resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy. Layer dependent angle resolved polarized Raman fingerprints of the MnPS$_3$ crystal are obtained and the Raman peak at 383 cm$^{-1}$ exhibits 100% polarity. Temperature dependences of anisotropic magnetic susceptibility of MnPS$_3$ crystal are measured in superconducting quantum interference device. Magnetic parameters like effective magnetic moment, and exchange interaction are extracted from the mean field approximation mode. Ambipolar electronic transport channels in MnPS$_3$ are realized by the liquid gating technique. The conducting channel of MnPS$_3$ offers a unique platform for exploring the spin/valleytronics and magnetic orders in 2D limitation.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Quantum Transport in Ambipolar Few-layer Black Phosphorus

Few-layer black phosphorus possesses unique electronic properties giving rise to distinct quantum phenomena and thus offers a fertile platform to explore the emergent correlation phenomena in low dimensions. A great progress has been demonstrated in improving the quality of hole-doped few-layer black phosphorus and its quantum transport studies, whereas the same achievements are rather modest for electron-doped few-layer black phosphorus. Here, we report the ambipolar quantum transport in few-layer black phosphorus exhibiting undoubtedly the quantum Hall effect for hole transport and showing clear signatures of the quantum Hall effect for electron transport. By bringing the spin-resolved Landau levels of the electron-doped black phosphorus to the coincidence, we measure the spin susceptibility $χ_s=m^\ast g^\ast=1.1\pm0.03$. This value is larger than for hole-doped black phosphorus and illustrates an energetically equidistant arrangement of spin-resolved Landau levels. Evidently, the n-type black phosphorus offers a unique platform with equidistant sequence of spin-up and spin-down states for exploring the quantum spintronic.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Gate-tunable strong-weak localization transition in few-layer black phosphorus

Atomically thin black phosphorus (BP) field-effect transistors show strong-weak localization transition which is tunable through gate voltages. Hopping transports through charge impurity induced localized states are measured at low-carrier density regime. Variable-range hopping model is applied to simulate the charge carrier scattering behavior. In the high-carrier concentration regime, a negative magnetoresistance signals the weak localization effect. The extracted phase coherence length is power-law temperature dependent ($\sim T^{-0.48\pm0.03}$) and demonstrates electron-electron interactions in few-layer BP. The competition between the Strong localization length and phase coherence length is proposed and discussed based on the observed gate tunable strong-weak localization transition in few-layer BP.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Odd-integer quantum Hall states and giant spin susceptibility in p-type few-layer WSe2

We fabricate high-mobility p-type few-layer WSe2 field-effect transistors and surprisingly observe a series of quantum Hall (QH) states following an unconventional sequence predominated by odd-integer states under a moderate strength magnetic field. By tilting the magnetic field, we discover Landau level (LL) crossing effects at ultra-low coincident angles, revealing that the Zeeman energy is about three times as large as the cyclotron energy near the valence band top at Γ valley. This result implies the significant roles played by the exchange interactions in p-type few-layer WSe2, in which itinerant or QH ferromagnetism likely occurs. Evidently, the Γ valley of few-layer WSe2 offers a unique platform with unusually heavy hole-carriers and a substantially enhanced g-factor for exploring strongly correlated phenomena.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Induced robust topological order on an ordinary insulator hetero-structured with a strong topological insulator

Topological states of matter originate from distinct topological electronic structures of materials. As for strong topological insulators (STIs), the topological surface (interface) is a direct consequence of electronic structure transition between materials categorized to different topological genus. Therefore, it is fundamentally interesting if such topological character can be manipulated. Besides tuning the crystal field and the strength of spin-orbital coupling (e.g., by external strain, or chemical doping), there is currently rare report on topological state induced in ordinary insulators (OIs) by the heterostructure of OI/STI. Here we report the observation of a Dirac cone topological surface state (TSS) induced on the Sb2Se3 layer up to 15 nm thick in the OI/STI heterostructure, in sharp contrast with the OI/OI heterostructure where no sign of TSS can be observed. This is evident for an induced topological state in an OI by heterostructure.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2016

Charge Density Wave Phase Transition on the Surface of Electrostatically Doped Multilayer Graphene

We demonstrate that charge density wave (CDW) phase transition occurs on the surface of electronically doped multilayer graphene when the Fermi level approaches the M points (also known as van Hove singularities where the density of states diverge) in the Brillouin zone of graphene band structure. The occurrence of such CDW phase transitions are supported by both the electrical transport measurement and optical measurements in electrostatically doped multilayer graphene. The CDW transition is accompanied with the sudden change of graphene channel resistance at T$_m$= 100K, as well as the splitting of Raman G peak (1580 cm$^{-1}$). The splitting of Raman G peak indicats the lifting of in-plane optical phonon branch degeneracy and the non-degenerate phonon branches are correlated to the lattice reconstructions of graphene -- the CDW phase transition.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Type-controlled Nanodevices Based on Encapsulated Few-layer Black Phosphorus for Quantum Transport

We demonstrate that encapsulation of atomically thin black phosphorus (BP) by hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) sheets is very effective for minimizing the interface impurities induced during fabrication of BP channel material for quantum transport nanodevices. Highly stable BP nanodevices with ultrahigh mobility and controllable types are realized through depositing appropriate metal electrodes after conducting a selective etching to the BP encapsulation structure. Chromium and titanium are suitable metal electrodes for BP channels to control the transition from a p-type unipolar property to ambipolar characteristic because of different work functions. Record-high mobilities of 6000 $cm^2V^{-1}s^{-1}$ and 8400 $cm^2V^{-1}s^{-1}$ are respectively obtained for electrons and holes at cryogenic temperatures. High-mobility BP devices enable the investigation of quantum oscillations with an indistinguishable Zeeman effect in laboratory magnetic field.

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