Edge-driven transition between extended quantum anomalous Hall crystal and fractional Chern insulator in rhombohedral graphene multilayers

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Wei, Zezhu, Wu, Ang-Kun, Gonçalves, Miguel, Lin, Shi-Zeng
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Wei, Zezhu
Wu, Ang-Kun
Gonçalves, Miguel
Lin, Shi-Zeng
author_facet Wei, Zezhu
Wu, Ang-Kun
Gonçalves, Miguel
Lin, Shi-Zeng
contents Fractional Chern insulators (FCI) with fractionally quantized Hall conductance at fractional fillings and an extended quantum anomalous Hall (EQAH) crystal with an integer quantized Hall conductance over an extended region of doping were recently observed in pentalayer graphene. One particularly puzzling observation is the transition between the EQAH and FCI regimes, driven either by temperature or electrical current. Here we propose a scenario to understand these transitions based on the topologically protected gapless edge modes that are present in both the FCI and EQAH phases and should be most relevant at temperature scales below the energy gap. Our consideration is based on the simple assumption that the edge velocity in FCI is smaller than that in EQAHE and thus contributes to a higher entropy. We further argue that domains with opposite fractionally quantized Hall conductance are ubiquitous in the devices due to disorder, which gives rise to a network of edge modes. The velocity of the edge modes between domains is further reduced due to edge reconstruction. The edge velocity can also be reduced by current when the occupation of the edge mode approaches the gap edge. The edge entropy therefore drives the transition from EQAH to FCI either by temperature or current at a nonzero temperature.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_05043
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Edge-driven transition between extended quantum anomalous Hall crystal and fractional Chern insulator in rhombohedral graphene multilayers
Wei, Zezhu
Wu, Ang-Kun
Gonçalves, Miguel
Lin, Shi-Zeng
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Fractional Chern insulators (FCI) with fractionally quantized Hall conductance at fractional fillings and an extended quantum anomalous Hall (EQAH) crystal with an integer quantized Hall conductance over an extended region of doping were recently observed in pentalayer graphene. One particularly puzzling observation is the transition between the EQAH and FCI regimes, driven either by temperature or electrical current. Here we propose a scenario to understand these transitions based on the topologically protected gapless edge modes that are present in both the FCI and EQAH phases and should be most relevant at temperature scales below the energy gap. Our consideration is based on the simple assumption that the edge velocity in FCI is smaller than that in EQAHE and thus contributes to a higher entropy. We further argue that domains with opposite fractionally quantized Hall conductance are ubiquitous in the devices due to disorder, which gives rise to a network of edge modes. The velocity of the edge modes between domains is further reduced due to edge reconstruction. The edge velocity can also be reduced by current when the occupation of the edge mode approaches the gap edge. The edge entropy therefore drives the transition from EQAH to FCI either by temperature or current at a nonzero temperature.
title Edge-driven transition between extended quantum anomalous Hall crystal and fractional Chern insulator in rhombohedral graphene multilayers
topic Strongly Correlated Electrons
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.05043