论文标题
魔法扭曲的双层石墨烯中的Chern绝缘子密切相关
Strongly Correlated Chern Insulators in Magic-Angle Twisted Bilayer Graphene
论文作者
论文摘要
电子之间的相互作用及其能带的拓扑可以创建物质的新量子阶段。大多数拓扑电子相都出现在具有弱电子相互作用的系统中。仅由于强烈相互作用而出现拓扑阶段的实例很少,并且主要限于在存在强烈磁场的情况下实现的情况。在魔法角扭曲的双层石墨烯(MATBG)中发现具有拓扑特征的平坦电子带创造了独特的机会,以搜索新的紧密相关的拓扑阶段。 Here we introduce a novel local spectroscopic technique using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to detect a sequence of topological insulators in MATBG with Chern numbers C = $\pm$ 1, $\pm$ 2, $\pm$ 3, which form near $ν$ = $\pm$ 3, $\pm$ 2, $\pm$ 1 electrons per moiré unit cell respectively, and are stabilized by the适度磁场的应用。此处检测到的阶段之一(C = +1)先前已经观察到MATBG的sublattice对称性被六角形硝酸硼(HBN)底物故意破坏,并且相互作用起次要角色。我们证明,仅强的电子电子相互作用不仅可以产生先前观察到的相,还可以产生MATBG中的新的和意外的Chern绝缘阶段。我们观察到的完整阶段序列可以通过假设有利于破坏时间反转对称性的强度形成稳定磁场稳定的Chern绝缘子来理解。我们的发现表明,多体相关性可以在Moiré系统中创建拓扑阶段,而不是从弱相互作用的模型中预期的拓扑阶段。
Interactions among electrons and the topology of their energy bands can create novel quantum phases of matter. Most topological electronic phases appear in systems with weak electron-electron interactions. The instances where topological phases emerge only as a result of strong interactions are rare, and mostly limited to those realized in the presence of intense magnetic fields. The discovery of flat electronic bands with topological character in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (MATBG) has created a unique opportunity to search for new strongly correlated topological phases. Here we introduce a novel local spectroscopic technique using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to detect a sequence of topological insulators in MATBG with Chern numbers C = $\pm$ 1, $\pm$ 2, $\pm$ 3, which form near $ν$ = $\pm$ 3, $\pm$ 2, $\pm$ 1 electrons per moiré unit cell respectively, and are stabilized by the application of modest magnetic fields. One of the phases detected here (C = +1) has been previously observed when the sublattice symmetry of MATBG was intentionally broken by hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) substrates, with interactions playing a secondary role. We demonstrate that strong electron-electron interactions alone can produce not only the previously observed phase, but also new and unexpected Chern insulating phases in MATBG. The full sequence of phases we observed can be understood by postulating that strong correlations favor breaking time-reversal symmetry to form Chern insulators that are stabilized by weak magnetic fields. Our findings illustrate that many-body correlations can create topological phases in moiré systems beyond those anticipated from weakly interacting models.