Anomalous Hall Crystals in Rhombohedral Multilayer Graphene I: Interaction-Driven Chern Bands and Fractional Quantum Hall States at Zero Magnetic Field

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Auteurs principaux: Dong, Junkai, Wang, Taige, Wang, Tianle, Soejima, Tomohiro, Zaletel, Michael P., Vishwanath, Ashvin, Parker, Daniel E.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2023
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author Dong, Junkai
Wang, Taige
Wang, Tianle
Soejima, Tomohiro
Zaletel, Michael P.
Vishwanath, Ashvin
Parker, Daniel E.
author_facet Dong, Junkai
Wang, Taige
Wang, Tianle
Soejima, Tomohiro
Zaletel, Michael P.
Vishwanath, Ashvin
Parker, Daniel E.
contents Recent experiments on rhombohedral pentalayer graphene flakes with a substrate induced moiré potential have identified both Chern insulators and fractional Quantum Hall states in the absence of an applied magnetic field. Surprisingly, these states are observed in strong displacement fields where the effects of the moiré lattice are weak, and seem to be readily accessed without fine-tuning. To address these experimental puzzles we study an interacting model of electrons in this geometry, first within the self-consistent Hartree-Fock (SCHF) approximation. We find an isolated Chern band with Chern number $|C|=1$, that moreover is relatively flat and shows good quantum geometry. Exact diagonalization and density matrix renormalization group methods at fractional filling establish the presence of fractional quantum anomalous Hall (FQAH) states. The $|C|=1$ band in SCHF is remarkably robust to varying microscopic parameters, and is also found in the $N_L=4$ and $N_L=6$ layer systems. Remarkably, it appears stable even to switching off the moiré potential, pointing to spontaneous breaking of translation symmetry. We term this topological crystalline state the ``anomalous Hall crystal" (AHC), and argue that it constitutes a general mechanism for creating stable Chern bands in rhombohedral graphene. Our work elucidates the physics behind the recent rhombohedral pentalayer graphene observations, predicts the appearance of the same phase in other systems, and opens the door to studying the interplay between electronic topology and spontaneous translation symmetry breaking.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2311_05568
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Anomalous Hall Crystals in Rhombohedral Multilayer Graphene I: Interaction-Driven Chern Bands and Fractional Quantum Hall States at Zero Magnetic Field
Dong, Junkai
Wang, Taige
Wang, Tianle
Soejima, Tomohiro
Zaletel, Michael P.
Vishwanath, Ashvin
Parker, Daniel E.
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Recent experiments on rhombohedral pentalayer graphene flakes with a substrate induced moiré potential have identified both Chern insulators and fractional Quantum Hall states in the absence of an applied magnetic field. Surprisingly, these states are observed in strong displacement fields where the effects of the moiré lattice are weak, and seem to be readily accessed without fine-tuning. To address these experimental puzzles we study an interacting model of electrons in this geometry, first within the self-consistent Hartree-Fock (SCHF) approximation. We find an isolated Chern band with Chern number $|C|=1$, that moreover is relatively flat and shows good quantum geometry. Exact diagonalization and density matrix renormalization group methods at fractional filling establish the presence of fractional quantum anomalous Hall (FQAH) states. The $|C|=1$ band in SCHF is remarkably robust to varying microscopic parameters, and is also found in the $N_L=4$ and $N_L=6$ layer systems. Remarkably, it appears stable even to switching off the moiré potential, pointing to spontaneous breaking of translation symmetry. We term this topological crystalline state the ``anomalous Hall crystal" (AHC), and argue that it constitutes a general mechanism for creating stable Chern bands in rhombohedral graphene. Our work elucidates the physics behind the recent rhombohedral pentalayer graphene observations, predicts the appearance of the same phase in other systems, and opens the door to studying the interplay between electronic topology and spontaneous translation symmetry breaking.
title Anomalous Hall Crystals in Rhombohedral Multilayer Graphene I: Interaction-Driven Chern Bands and Fractional Quantum Hall States at Zero Magnetic Field
topic Strongly Correlated Electrons
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.05568