A Raman study of a back gated bilayer graphene sample is presented. The changes in the Fermi level induced by charge transfer splits the Raman G-band, hardening its higher component and softening the lower one. These two components are associated with the symmetric (S) and anti-symmetric vibration (AS) of the atoms in the two layers, the later one becoming Raman active due to inversion symmetry breaking. The phonon hardening and softening are explained by considering the selective coupling of the S and AS phonons with interband and intraband electron-hole pairs.
We demonstrate that single layer graphene exhibits the electronic structure of a bilayer when it is connected to two gated bilayers. The energy gap characteristic for gated bilayer is induced in the single layer and it persists for distances separating the bilayers up to 20 nm. Most importantly, we report on the appearance of topologically protected gapless state localized in a single graphene layer when the distant bilayers differ in the stacking order. The one-dimensional current in the topological state flows in a single layer graphene, and this finding suggests a new exploitation of graphe…
We discuss the physics of the tunable bandgap in bilayer graphene with the gate voltage and doping. A comparison with experimental data obtained by Kuzmenko et al [Phys. Rev. B \textbf{80}, 165406 (2009)] demonstrates the good agreement.
Zigzag nanoribbons of monolayer graphene-like two-dimensional materials host spontaneous edge magnetism at the zigzag terminations, whose configuration controls the band gap. In this article, the edge magnetism of zigzag nanoribbons of bilayer hexagonal crystals are studied. The specific models of bilayer graphene and bilayer silicene are both studied. As the gated voltage increases, the total energy level, magnetic structure and band structures of the ground state and the first quasi-stable excited state are tuned. For certain region of the gated voltage, the band gaps of spin up and down are…
The resistance of dual-gated bilayer graphene is measured as a function of temperature and gating electric fields in the Corbino geometry which precludes edge transport. The temperature-dependent resistance is quantitatively described by a two channel conductance model including parallel thermal activation and variable range hopping channels, which gives the electric-field-dependent band gap whose magnitude is found to be in good agreement with infrared absorption experiments. Low temperature transport is similar to previous studies of dual-gated bilayer graphene with edges, suggesting that ed…
The electronic structure and optical response of electrically gated bilayer graphene are studied by first-principles approaches. We have obtained the induced band gap that is in good agreement with experiment when the applied electric field is less than 1.5 V/nm. The infrared optical absorbance is calculated within the single-particle excitation picture and its fine structures are presented. In addition, the calculated infrared optical absorbance is found to be strongly depending on stacking styles of bilayer graphene and the polarization direction of the incident light, which provides efficie…
We present transport measurements on a bilayer graphene sheet with homogeneous back gate and split top gate. The electronic transport data indicates the capability to direct electron flow through graphene nanostructures purely defined by electrostatic gating. By comparing the transconductance data recorded for different top gate geometries - continuous barrier and split-gate - the observed transport features for the split-gate can be attributed to interference effects inside the narrow opening.
We study the electronic transport properties of dual-gated bilayer graphene devices. We focus on the regime of low temperatures and high electric displacement fields, where we observe a clear exponential dependence of the resistance as a function of displacement field and density, accompanied by a strong non-linear behavior in the transport characteristics. The effective transport gap is typically two orders of magnitude smaller than the optical band gaps reported by infrared spectroscopy studies. Detailed temperature dependence measurements shed light on the different transport mechanisms in …
Gated bilayer graphene exhibits spin-degenerate gapless states with a topological character localized at stacking domain walls. These states allow for one-dimensional currents along the domain walls. We herein demonstrate that these topologically protected currents are spin -polarized and locked in a single layer when bilayer graphene contains stacking domain walls decorated with magnetic defects. The magnetic defects, which we model as π-vacancies, perturb the topological states but also lift their spin degeneracy. One gapless state survives the perturbation of these defects, and its spin pol…
We report on transport properties in dual-gated hexagonal boron nitride (hBN)/bilayer-graphene (BLG) superlattices. Here, BLG is nontwisted, i.e., plain. This paper focuses on the charge neutrality point (CNP) for a plain BLG. Under a perpendicular magnetic field, transitions between two insulating phases at the CNP are detected by varying a displacement field with the study on the resistance-temperature characteristics and the magnetoresistance. This work opens avenues for exploring the global phase diagram of the hBN/BLG superlattices beyond the CNP.
The photovoltaic and bolometric photoresponse in gapped bilayer graphene was investigated by optical and transport measurements. A pulse coincidence technique at 1.5 um was used to measure the response times as a function of temperature. The bolometric and photovoltaic response times were found to be identical implying that the photovoltaic response is also governed by hot electron thermal relaxation. Response times of tau ~ 100 - 20 ps were found for temperatures from 3 - 100 K. Above 10 K, the relaxation time was observed to be tau = 25 +/- 5 ps, independent of temperature within noise.
We show simultaneous p and n type carrier injection in bilayer graphene channel by varying the longitudinal bias across the channel and the top gate voltage. The top gate is applied electrochemically using solid polymer electrolyte and the gate capacitance is measured to be 1.5 $μF/cm^2$, a value about 125 times higher than the conventional SiO$_2$ back gate capacitance. Unlike the single layer graphene, the drain-source current does not saturate on varying the drain-source bias voltage. The energy gap opened between the valence and conduction bands using top and back gate geometry is estimate…
Coherent spin-dependent transport through a junction containing of Normal/Ferromagnetic/Normal bilayer graphene nanoribbon with zigzag edges is investigated by using Landauer formalism. In a more realistic set-up, the exchange field is induced by two ferromagnetic insulator strips deposited on the ribbon edges while a perpendicular electric field is applied by the top gated electrodes. Our results show that, for antiparallel configuration, a band gap is opened giving rise a semiconducting behavior, while for parallel configuration, the band structure has no band gap. As a result, a giant magne…
Electric transport of double gated bilayer graphene devices is studied as a function of charge density and bandgap. A top gate electrode can be used to control locally the Fermi level to create a pn junction between the double-gated and single-gated region. These bilayer graphene pn diodes are characterized by non-linear currents and directional current rectification, and we show the rectified direction of the source-drain voltage can be controlled by using gate voltages. A systematic study of the pn junction characteristics allows to extract a gate-dependent bandgap value which ranges from 0 …
The effects of Coulomb interactions on the electronic properties of bilayer graphene nanoribbons (BGNs) covered by a gate electrode are studied theoretically. The electron density distribution and the potential profile are calculated self-consistently within the Hartree approximation. A comparison to their single-particle counterparts reveals the effects of interactions and screening. Due to the finite width of the nanoribbon in combination with electronic repulsion, the gate-induced electrons tend to accumulate along the BGN edges where the potential assumes a sharp triangular shape. This has…
In this work we study the behavior of the optical phonon modes in bilayer graphene devices by applying top gate voltage, using Raman scattering. We observe the splitting of the Raman G band as we tune the Fermi level of the sample, which is explained in terms of mixing of the Raman (Eg) and infrared (Eu) phonon modes, due to different doping in the two layers. We theoretically analyze our data in terms of the bilayer graphene phonon self-energy which includes non-homogeneous charge carrier doping between the graphene layers. We show that the comparison between the experiment and theoretical mo…
The non-interacting energy spectrum of graphene and its bilayer counterpart consists of multiple degeneracies owing to the inherent spin, valley and layer symmetries. Interactions among charge carriers are expected to spontaneously break these symmetries, leading to gapped ordered states. In the quantum Hall regime these states are predicted to be ferromagnetic in nature whereby the system becomes spin polarized, layer polarized or both. In bilayer graphene, due to its parabolic dispersion, interaction-induced symmetry breaking is already expected at zero magnetic field. In this work, the unde…
We analyze the response of bilayer graphene to an external transverse electric field using a variational method. A previous attempt to do so in a recent paper by Falkovsky [Phys. Rev. B 80, 113413 (2009)] is shown to be flawed. Our calculation reaffirms the original results obtained by one of us [E. McCann, Phys. Rev. B 74, 161403(R) (2006)] by a different method. Finally, we generalize these original results to describe a dual-gated bilayer graphene device.
We discuss the effect of disorder on the band gap measured in bilayer graphene in optical and transport experiments. By calculating the optical conductivity and density of states using a microscopic model in the presence of disorder, we demonstrate that the gap associated with transport experiments is smaller than that associated with optical experiments. Intrinsic bilayer graphene has an optical conductivity in which the energy of the peaks associated with the interband transition are very robust against disorder and thus provide an estimate of the band gap. In contrast, extraction of the ban…
Theoretical and numerical calculations of two-phonon processes on gated lateral semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are outlined. A heterostructure made with two laterally coupled QDs, in the presence of an external magnetic field, has been employed in order to study the electron scattering rate due to two-phonon processes. The formalism is based on the acoustic phonon modes via the unscreened deformation potential and the piezoelectric interaction whenever the crystal lattice lacks a center of inversion symmetry. The rates are calculated by using second order perturbation theory. The strong depe…
Detection of infrared light is central to diverse applications in security, medicine, astronomy, materials science, and biology. Often different materials and detection mechanisms are employed to optimize performance in different spectral ranges. Graphene is a unique material with strong, nearly frequency-independent light-matter interaction from far infrared to ultraviolet, with potential for broadband photonics applications. Moreover, graphene's small electron-phonon coupling suggests that hot-electron effects may be exploited at relatively high temperatures for fast and highly sensitive det…
We study the magnetotransport properties of dual-gated graphene bilayers, in which the total density and layer density imbalance are independently controlled. As the bilayer is imbalanced we observe the emergence of a quantum Hall state (QHS) at filling factor $ν=0$ evinced by a plateau in the Hall conductivity, consistent with the opening of a gap between the electron and hole bands. By varying the layer density imbalance at fixed total density, we observe a suppression of the QHS at filling factors $ν=8$ and $ν=12$ when the layer densities are balanced, an observation at variance with theore…
Using electrical transport experiments and shot noise thermometry, we investigate electron-phonon heat transfer rate in a suspended bilayer graphene. Contrary to monolayer graphene with heat flow via three-body supercollision scattering, we find that regular electron - optical phonon scattering in bilayer graphene provides the dominant scattering process at electron energies $ \gtrsim 0.15$ eV. We determine the strength of these intrinsic heat flow processes of bilayer graphene and find good agreement with theoretical estimates when both zone edge and zone center optical phonons are taken into…
Understanding the origin of hysteresis in the channel resistance from top gated graphene transistors is important for transistor applications. Capacitance - voltage measurements across the gate oxide on top gated bilayer graphene show hysteresis with a charging and discharging time constant of ~100 μs. However, the measured capacitance across the graphene channel does not show any hysteresis, but shows an abrupt jump at a high channel voltage due to the emergence of an order, indicating that the origin of hysteresis between gate and source is due to charge traps present in the gate oxide and g…
We study ballistic transport in periodically gated bilayer graphene as a candidate for a 2D electronic metamaterial. Our calculations use the equilibrium Green function formalism and take into account quantum corrections to charge density changes induced by a periodically modulated top gate voltage. Our results reveal an intriguing interference-like pattern, similar to that of a Fabry-Perot interferometer, in the resistance map as a function of the voltage $V_{BG}$ applied to the extended bottom gate and $V_{TG}$ applied to the periodic top gate.
Density functional perturbation theory is used to analyze electron-phonon interaction in bilayer graphene. The results show that phonon scattering in bilayer graphene bears more resemblance with bulk graphite than monolayer graphene. In particular, electron-phonon scattering in the lowest conduction band is dominated by six lowest (acoustic and acoustic-like) phonon branches with only minor contributions from optical modes. The total scattering rate at low/moderate electron energies can be described by a simple two-phonon model in the deformation potential approximation with effective constant…
We study an epitaxial graphene monolayer with bilayer inclusions via magnetotransport measurements and scanning gate microscopy at low temperatures. We find that bilayer inclusions can be metallic or insulating depending on the initial and gated carrier density. The metallic bilayers act as equipotential shorts for edge currents, while closely spaced insulating bilayers guide the flow of electrons in the monolayer constriction, which was locally gated using a scanning gate probe.
In bilayer CrI3, experimental and theoretical studies suggest that the magnetic order is closely related to the layer staking configuration. In this work, we study the effect of dynamical lattice distortions, induced by non-linear phonon coupling, in the magnetic order of the bilayer system. We use density functional theory to determine the phonon properties and group theory to obtain the allowed phonon-phonon interactions. We find that the bilayer structure possesses low-frequency Raman modes that can be non-linearly activated upon the coherent photo-excitation of a suitable infrared phonon m…
We construct an analytic continuum model to describe the electronic structure and the electron-phonon interaction in twisted bilayer graphenes with arbitrary lattice deformation. Starting from the tight-binding model, we derive the interlayer Hamiltonian in the presence of general lattice displacement, and obtain a long-wavelength continuum expression for smooth deformation. We show that the continuum model correctly describes the band structures of the lattice-relaxed twisted bilayer graphenes. We apply the formula to the phonon vibration, and derive an explicit expression of the electron-pho…
Thermoelectric power of a material, typically governed by its band structure and carrier density, can be varied by chemical doping that is often restricted by solubility of the dopant. Materials showing large thermoelectric power are useful for many industrial applications, such as the heat-to-electricity conversion and the thermoelectric cooling device. Here we show a full electric field tuning of thermoelectric power in a dual-gated bilayer graphene device resulting from the opening of a band-gap by applying a perpendicular electric field on bilayer graphene. We uncover a large enhancement i…
We report phonon renormalisation in bilayer graphene as a function of doping. The Raman G peak stiffens and sharpens for both electron and hole doping, as a result of the non-adiabatic Kohn anomaly at the $Γ$ point. The bilayer has two conduction and valence subbands, with splitting dependent on the interlayer coupling. This results in a change of slope in the variation of G peak position with doping, which allows a direct measurement of the interlayer coupling strength.
We have performed low temperature scanning tunneling spectroscopy measurements on exfoliated bilayer graphene on SiO2. By varying the back gate voltage we observed a linear shift of the Dirac point and an opening of a band gap due to the perpendicular electric field. In addition to observing a shift in the Dirac point, we also measured its spatial dependence using spatially resolved scanning tunneling spectroscopy. The spatial variation of the Dirac point was not correlated with topographic features and therefore we attribute its shift to random charged impurities.
Double-gated graphene devices provide an important platform for understanding electrical and optical properties of graphene. Here we present transport measurements of single layer, bilayer and trilayer graphene devices with suspended top gates. In zero magnetic fields, we observe formation of pnp junctions with tunable polarity and charge densities, as well as a tunable band gap in bilayer graphene and a tunable band overlap in trilayer graphene. In high magnetic fields, the devices' conductance are quantized at integer and fractional values of conductance quantum, and the data are in good agr…
Superconductors at the atomic two-dimensional (2D) limit are the focus of an enduring fascination in the condensed matter community. This is because, with reduced dimensions, the effects of disorders, fluctuations, and correlations in superconductors become particularly prominent at the atomic 2D limit; thus such superconductors provide opportunities to tackle tough theoretical and experimental challenges. Here, based on the observation of ultrathin 2D superconductivity in mono- and bilayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS$_2$) with electric-double-layer (EDL) gating, we found that the critical sheet…
We present complete calculations of the two-phonon Raman bands of bilayer graphene, including all overtone and combination modes, within a density-functional tight-binding model. Based on our results, we assign unambiguously the observed two-phonon Raman bands to two-phonon modes, thus resolving the existing controversies. In particular, we show that both overtone and combination modes have essential contribution to the 2D band, bringing about specific modifications of the band shape. We argue that a mid-range two-phonon Raman band, previously assigned to the 2ZO mode, should be assigned to th…
We report the discovery of a strong and tunable spin lifetime anisotropy with excellent spin lifetimes up to 7.8 ns in dual-gated bilayer graphene. Remarkably, this realizes the manipulation of spins in graphene by electrically-controlled spin-orbit fields, which is unexpected due to graphene's weak intrinsic spin-orbit coupling. We utilize both the in-plane magnetic field Hanle precession and oblique Hanle precession measurements to directly compare the lifetimes of out-of-plane vs. in-plane spins. We find that near the charge neutrality point, the application of a perpendicular electric fiel…
We study the in-plane acoustic phonons in twisted bilayer graphenes using the effective continuum approach. We calculate the phonon modes by solving the continuum equation of motion for infinitesimal vibration around the static relaxed state with triangular domain structure. We find that the moiré interlayer potential only affects the in-plane asymmetric modes, where the original linear dispersion is broken down into miniphonon bands separated by gaps, while the in-plane symmetric modes with their linear dispersion are hardly affected. The phonon wave functions of asymmetric modes are regarded…
The interaction of electron-hole pairs with lattice vibrations exhibits a wealth of intriguing physical phenomena. The Kohn anomaly is a renowned example where electron-phonon coupling leads to non-analytic phonon dispersion at specific momentum nesting the Fermi surface. Here we report evidence of another type of phonon anomaly discovered by low temperature Raman spectroscopy in bilayer graphene where the charge density is modulated by the electric field effect. This anomaly, arising from charge-tunable modulations of particle-hole pairs that are resonantly coupled to lattice vibrations, is p…
By employing the first-principles GW-Bethe-Salpeter Equation (BSE) simulation, we obtain, for the first time, the accurate quasiparticle (QP) band gap, optical absorption spectra and their dependence on the gate field of gated bilayer graphene (GBLG). Many-electron effects are shown to be extremely important to understand these excited-state properties; enhanced electron-electron interactions dramatically enlarge the QP band gap; infrared optical absorption spectra are dictated by bright bound excitons. Our results well explain recent experiments and satisfyingly solve the puzzle about the inc…
We present a theoretical study of the modification of the near-field radiative heat transfer due to phonon-plasmon coupling in bilayer systems made of a doped semiconductor and a polar dielectric. By tuning the surface-plasmon mode of the former material in resonance with the phonon modes of the latter one, the near-field spectral radiative heat transfer can be suppressed in a frequency band gap. We distinguish between the interlayer mode coupling within each bilayer and the intragap one between the two bilayers. We elucidate the role of each of them in the formation of the band gap and we det…
Many-body effects resulting from strong electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions play a significant role in graphene physics. We report on their manifestation in low B field magneto-phonon resonances in high quality exfoliated single-layer and bilayer graphene encapsulated in hexagonal boron nitride. These resonances allow us to extract characteristic effective Fermi velocities, as high as $1.20 \times 10^6$ m/s, for the observed "dressed" Landau level transitions, as well as the broadening of the resonances, which increases with Landau level index.
The tight-binding model of a graphene bilayer is used to find the gap between the conduction and valence bands, as a function of both the gate voltage and as the doping by donors or acceptors. The total Hartree energy is minimized and the equation for the gap is obtained. This equation for the ratio of the gap to the chemical potential is determined only by the screening constant. Thus the gap is strictly proportional to the gate voltage or the carrier concentration in the absence of donors or acceptors. In the opposite case, where the donors or acceptors are present, the gap demonstrates the …
Interference between different possible paths lies at the heart of quantum physics. Such interference between coupled discrete and continuum states of a system can profoundly change its interaction with light as seen in Fano resonance. Here we present a unique many-body Fano system composed of a discrete phonon vibration and continuous electron-hole pair transitions in bilayer graphene. Mediated by the electron-phonon interactions, the excited state is described by new quanta of elementary excitations of hybrid phonon-exciton nature. Infrared absorption of the hybrid states exhibit characteris…
We present the first Raman spectroscopic study of Bernal bilayer graphene flakes under uniaxial tension. Apart from a purely mechanical behavior in flake regions where both layers are strained evenly, certain effects stem from inhomogeneous stress distribution across the layers. These phenomena such as the removal of inversion symmetry in bilayer graphene may have important implications in the band-gap engineering providing an alternative route to induce the formation of a band-gap.
We analyze the lineshape of the quasiparticle photoluminescence of monolayer and bilayer molybdenum ditelluride in temperature- and excitation intensity-dependent experiments. We confirm the existence of a negatively charged trion in the bilayer based on its emission characteristics and find hints for a coexistence of intra- and interlayer trions with a few meV splitting in energy. From the lineshape analysis of exciton and trion emission we extract values for exciton and trion deformation potentials as well as acoustical and optical phonon-limited mobilities in MoTe2, with the mobilities show…
We report a comprehensive micro-Raman scattering study of electrochemically-gated graphene field-effect transistors. The geometrical capacitance of the electrochemical top-gates is accurately determined from dual-gated Raman measurements, allowing a quantitative analysis of the frequency, linewidth and integrated intensity of the main Raman features of graphene. The anomalous behavior observed for the G-mode phonon is in very good agreement with theoretical predictions and provides a measurement of the electron-phonon coupling constant for zone-center ($Γ$ point) optical phonons. In addition, …
We report the direct observation of intervalley exciton between the Q conduction valley and $Γ$ valence valley in bilayer WSe$_2$ by photoluminescence. The Q$Γ$ exciton lies at ~18 meV below the QK exciton and dominates the luminescence of bilayer WSe$_2$. By measuring the exciton spectra at gate-tunable electric field, we reveal different interlayer electric dipole moments and Stark shifts between Q$Γ$ and QK excitons. Notably, we can use the electric field to switch the energy order and dominant luminescence between Q$Γ$ and QK excitons. Both Q$Γ$ and QK excitons exhibit pronounced phonon re…
We investigate the effect of exchange and correlation (xc) in low-density electron bilayers. Along with the direct Coulomb interaction, the effective electron-electron interaction mediated by the exchange of virtual polar optical (PO) phonons is considered. We find that the introduction of xc corrections results in a significant enhancement of the transresistivity and qualitative changes in its temperature dependence. The virtual PO-phonon contribution behaves similarly to the Coulomb drag and reduces noticeably the total drag thereby resulting in a better agreement with the recent experimenta…
The elimination of extrinsic sources of spin relaxation is key in realizing the exceptional intrinsic spin transport performance of graphene. Towards this, we study charge and spin transport in bilayer graphene-based spin valve devices fabricated in a new device architecture which allows us to make a comparative study by separately investigating the roles of substrate and polymer residues on spin relaxation. First, the comparison between spin valves fabricated on SiO2 and BN substrates suggests that substrate-related charged impurities, phonons and roughness do not limit the spin transport in …
We report strong electron-phonon coupling in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (MA-TBG) obtained from atomistic description of the system including more than 10000 atoms in the moire supercell. Electronic structure, phonon spectrum, and electron-phonon coupling strength lambda are obtained before and after atomic-position relaxation both in and out of plane. Obtained lambda is very large for MA-TBG, with lambda > 1 near the half-filling energies of the flat bands, while it is small (lambda ~ 0.1) for monolayer and unrotated bilayer graphene. Significant electron-hole asymmetry occurs in the…
Conduction between graphene layers is suppressed by momentum conservation whenever the layer stacking has a rotation. Here we show that phonon scattering plays a crucial role in facilitating interlayer conduction. The resulting dependence on orientation is radically different than previously expected, and far more favorable for device applications. At low temperatures, we predict diode-like current-voltage characteristics due to a phonon bottleneck. Simple scaling relationships give a good description of the conductance as a function of temperature, doping, rotation angle, and bias voltage, re…
We study the variations of electron-phonon coupling and their spectroscopic consequences in response to sliding of two layers in bilayer graphene using first-principles calculations and a model Hamiltonian. Our study shows that the long wave-length optical phonon modes change in a sensitive and unusual way depending on the symmetry as well as the parity of sliding atomic structures and that, accordingly, Raman- and infrared-active optical phonon modes behave differently upon the direction and size of the sliding. The renormalization of phonon modes by the interlayer electronic coupling is show…
The phonon spectra of twisted bilayer graphene (tBLG) are analyzed for a series of 692 twisting angle values in the $[0,30{\degree}]$ range. The evolution of the phonon bandstructure as a function of twist angle is examined using a band unfolding scheme where the large number of phonon modes computed at the $Γ$ point for the large moiré tBLG supercells are unfolded onto the Brillouin Zone (BZ) of one of the two constituent layers. In addition to changes to the low-frequency breathing and shear modes, a series of well-defined side-bands around high-symmetry points of the extended BZ emerge due …
