English

Topological electronic crystals in twisted bilayer-trilayer graphene

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2025-03-13 v2

Abstract

In a dilute two-dimensional electron gas, Coulomb interactions can stabilize the formation of a Wigner crystal. Although Wigner crystals are topologically trivial, it has been predicted that electrons in a partially-filled band can break continuous translational symmetry and time-reversal symmetry spontaneously to form a form of topological electron crystal known as an anomalous Hall crystal. Here, we report the observation of a generalized version of the anomalous Hall crystal in twisted bilayer-trilayer graphene, whose formation is driven by the moire potential. The crystal forms at a band filling factor of one electron per four moir\'e unit cells (ν=1/4\nu=1/4) and quadruples the unit-cell area, coinciding with an integer quantum anomalous Hall effect. The Chern number of the state is exceptionally tunable, and can be switched reversibly between +1+1 and 1-1 by electric and magnetic fields. Several other topological electronic crystals arise in a modest magnetic field, originating from ν=1/3\nu=1/3, 1/21/2, 2/32/3, and 3/23/2. The quantum geometry of the folded bands is likely very different from that of the original parent band, enabling possible future discoveries of correlation-driven topological phenomena

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2406.17766,
  title  = {Topological electronic crystals in twisted bilayer-trilayer graphene},
  author = {Ruiheng Su and Dacen Waters and Boran Zhou and Kenji Watanabe and Takashi Taniguchi and Ya-Hui Zhang and Matthew Yankowitz and Joshua Folk},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.17766},
  year   = {2025}
}