Berry Curvature of Low-Energy Excitons in Rhombohedral Graphene

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Davenport, Henry, Schindler, Frank, Knolle, Johannes
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Davenport, Henry
Schindler, Frank
Knolle, Johannes
author_facet Davenport, Henry
Schindler, Frank
Knolle, Johannes
contents We investigate low energy excitons in rhombohedral pentalayer graphene encapsulated by hexagonal boron nitride (hBN/R5G/hBN), focusing on the regime at the experimental twist angle $θ= 0.77^\circ$ and with an applied electric field. We introduce a new low-energy two-band model of rhombohedral graphene that captures the band structure more accurately than previous models while keeping the number of parameters low. Using this model, we show that the centres of the exciton Wannier functions are displaced from the moiré unit cell origin by a quantised amount - they are instead localised at $C_3$-symmetric points on the boundary. We also find that the exciton shift is electrically tunable: by varying the electric field strength, the exciton Wannier centre can be exchanged between inequivalent corners of the moiré unit cell. Our results suggest the possibility of detecting excitonic corner or edge modes, as well as novel excitonic crystal defect responses in hBN/R5G/hBN. Lastly, we find that the excitons in hBN/R5G/hBN inherit excitonic Berry curvature from the underlying electronic bands, enriching their semiclassical transport properties. Our results position rhombohedral graphene as a compelling tunable platform for probing exciton topology in moiré materials.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_03290
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Berry Curvature of Low-Energy Excitons in Rhombohedral Graphene
Davenport, Henry
Schindler, Frank
Knolle, Johannes
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
We investigate low energy excitons in rhombohedral pentalayer graphene encapsulated by hexagonal boron nitride (hBN/R5G/hBN), focusing on the regime at the experimental twist angle $θ= 0.77^\circ$ and with an applied electric field. We introduce a new low-energy two-band model of rhombohedral graphene that captures the band structure more accurately than previous models while keeping the number of parameters low. Using this model, we show that the centres of the exciton Wannier functions are displaced from the moiré unit cell origin by a quantised amount - they are instead localised at $C_3$-symmetric points on the boundary. We also find that the exciton shift is electrically tunable: by varying the electric field strength, the exciton Wannier centre can be exchanged between inequivalent corners of the moiré unit cell. Our results suggest the possibility of detecting excitonic corner or edge modes, as well as novel excitonic crystal defect responses in hBN/R5G/hBN. Lastly, we find that the excitons in hBN/R5G/hBN inherit excitonic Berry curvature from the underlying electronic bands, enriching their semiclassical transport properties. Our results position rhombohedral graphene as a compelling tunable platform for probing exciton topology in moiré materials.
title Berry Curvature of Low-Energy Excitons in Rhombohedral Graphene
topic Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.03290