Relativistic Mott transition in strongly correlated artificial graphene

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Ma, Liguo, Chaturvedi, Raghav, Nguyen, Phuong X., Watanabe, Kenji, Taniguchi, Takashi, Mak, Kin Fai, Shan, Jie
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Ma, Liguo
Chaturvedi, Raghav
Nguyen, Phuong X.
Watanabe, Kenji
Taniguchi, Takashi
Mak, Kin Fai
Shan, Jie
author_facet Ma, Liguo
Chaturvedi, Raghav
Nguyen, Phuong X.
Watanabe, Kenji
Taniguchi, Takashi
Mak, Kin Fai
Shan, Jie
contents The realization of graphene has provided a bench-top laboratory for quantum electrodynamics. The low-energy excitations of graphene are two-dimensional massless Dirac fermions with opposite chiralities at the $\pm$K valleys of the graphene Brillouin zone. It has been speculated that the electron-electron interactions in graphene could spontaneously break the chiral symmetry to induce a finite mass for Dirac fermions, in analogue to dynamical mass generation in elementary particles. The phenomenon is also known as the relativistic Mott transition and has not been observed in pristine graphene because the interaction strength is insufficient. Here, we report the realization of strongly correlated artificial graphene and the observation of the relativistic Mott transition in twisted WSe2 tetralayers. Using magneto transport, we show that the first $Γ$-valley moiré valence band mimics the low-energy graphene band structure. At half-band filling, the system exhibits hallmarks of massless Dirac fermions, including an anomalous Landau fan originated from a $π$-Berry phase and a square-root density dependence of the cyclotron mass. We tune the interaction across the semimetal-insulator transition by reducing the twist angle below about 2.7 degrees. The emergent insulator is compatible with an antiferromagnetic Mott insulator. Our results open the possibility of studying strongly correlated Dirac fermions in a condensed matter system.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_07150
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Relativistic Mott transition in strongly correlated artificial graphene
Ma, Liguo
Chaturvedi, Raghav
Nguyen, Phuong X.
Watanabe, Kenji
Taniguchi, Takashi
Mak, Kin Fai
Shan, Jie
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Strongly Correlated Electrons
The realization of graphene has provided a bench-top laboratory for quantum electrodynamics. The low-energy excitations of graphene are two-dimensional massless Dirac fermions with opposite chiralities at the $\pm$K valleys of the graphene Brillouin zone. It has been speculated that the electron-electron interactions in graphene could spontaneously break the chiral symmetry to induce a finite mass for Dirac fermions, in analogue to dynamical mass generation in elementary particles. The phenomenon is also known as the relativistic Mott transition and has not been observed in pristine graphene because the interaction strength is insufficient. Here, we report the realization of strongly correlated artificial graphene and the observation of the relativistic Mott transition in twisted WSe2 tetralayers. Using magneto transport, we show that the first $Γ$-valley moiré valence band mimics the low-energy graphene band structure. At half-band filling, the system exhibits hallmarks of massless Dirac fermions, including an anomalous Landau fan originated from a $π$-Berry phase and a square-root density dependence of the cyclotron mass. We tune the interaction across the semimetal-insulator transition by reducing the twist angle below about 2.7 degrees. The emergent insulator is compatible with an antiferromagnetic Mott insulator. Our results open the possibility of studying strongly correlated Dirac fermions in a condensed matter system.
title Relativistic Mott transition in strongly correlated artificial graphene
topic Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Strongly Correlated Electrons
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.07150