Broken symmetry quantum Hall states in dual-gated ABA trilayer graphene

Nano Lett. 2013 Apr 10;13(4):1627-31. doi: 10.1021/nl4000757. Epub 2013 Mar 27.

Abstract

ABA-stacked trilayer graphene is a unique 2D electron system with mirror reflection symmetry and unconventional quantum Hall effect. We present low-temperature transport measurements on dual-gated suspended trilayer graphene in the quantum Hall (QH) regime. We observe QH plateaus at filling factors ν = -8, -2, 2, 6, and 10, which is in agreement with the full-parameter tight binding calculations. In high magnetic fields, odd-integer plateaus are also resolved, indicating almost complete lifting of the 12-fold degeneracy of the lowest Landau level (LL). Under an out-of-plane electric field E(perpendicular), we observe degeneracy breaking and transitions between QH plateaus. Interestingly, depending on its direction, E(perpendicular) selectively breaks the LL degeneracies in the electron-doped or hole-doped regimes. Our results underscore the rich interaction-induced phenomena in trilayer graphene.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Electrons*
  • Graphite / chemistry*
  • Magnetic Fields
  • Quantum Theory*

Substances

  • Graphite