English

Orbital Longitudinal Magneto-electric Coupling in Multilayer Graphene

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2026-02-03 v1

Abstract

Magneto-electric coupling enables the manipulation of magnetization by electric fields and vice versa. While typically found in heavy element materials with large spin-orbit coupling, recent experiments on rhombohedral-stacked pentalayer graphene (RPG) have demonstrated a {\it longitudinal magneto-electric coupling} (LMC) without spin-orbit coupling. Here we present a microscopic theory of LMC in multilayer graphene and identify how it is controlled by a ``layer-space'' quantum geometry and interaction-driven valley polarization. Strikingly, we find that the interplay between valley-polarized order and LMC produces a butterfly shaped magnetic hysteresis controlled by out-of-plane electric field: a signature of LMC and a multiferroic valley order. Furthermore, we identify a nonlinear LMC in multilayer graphene under time-reversal symmetry, while the absence of centrosymmetry enables the generation of a second-order nonlinear electric dipole moment in response to an out-of-plane magnetic field. Our theoretical framework provides a quantitative understanding of LMC, as well as the emergent magneto-electric properties of multilayer graphene.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2503.07822,
  title  = {Orbital Longitudinal Magneto-electric Coupling in Multilayer Graphene},
  author = {Jin-Xin Hu and Justin C. W. Song},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.07822},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

6 pages, 4 figures, plus Supplementary

R2 v1 2026-06-28T22:14:50.179Z