English

Evidence for a Spin Phase Transition at {\nu}=0 in Bilayer Graphene

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2013-02-19 v2

Abstract

The most celebrated property of the quantum spin Hall effect is the presence of spin-polarized counter-propagating edge states. This novel edge state configuration has also been predicted to occur in graphene when spin-split electron- and hole-like Landau levels are forced to cross at the edge of the sample. In particular, a quantum spin Hall analogue has been predicted at {\nu}=0 in bilayer graphene if the ground state is a spin ferromagnet. Previous studies have demonstrated that the bilayer {\nu}=0 state is an insulator in a perpendicular magnetic field, though the exact nature of this state has not been identified. Here we present measurements of the {\nu}=0 state in a dual-gated bilayer graphene device in tilted magnetic field. The application of an in-plane magnetic field and perpendicular electric field allows us to map out a full phase diagram of the {\nu}=0 state as a function of experimentally tunable parameters. At large in-plane magnetic field we observe a quantum phase transition to a metallic state with conductance of order 4e^2/h, consistent with predictions for the ferromagnet.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1212.3846,
  title  = {Evidence for a Spin Phase Transition at {\nu}=0 in Bilayer Graphene},
  author = {Patrick Maher and Cory R. Dean and Andrea F. Young and Takashi Taniguchi and Kenji Watanabe and Kenneth L. Shepard and James Hone and Philip Kim},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1212.3846},
  year   = {2013}
}

Comments

5 pages, 4 figures