Charge Inversion and Topological Phase Transition at a Twist Angle Induced van Hove Singularity of Bilayer Graphene

• Published in: Nano letters 2016-08, Vol.16 (8), p.5053-5059
• Main Authors: Kim, Youngwook, Herlinger, Patrick, Moon, Pilkyung, Koshino, Mikito, Taniguchi, Takashi, Watanabe, Kenji, Smet, Jurgen H
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b01906

van Hove singularities (VHS’s) in the density of states play an outstanding and diverse role for the electronic and thermodynamic properties of crystalline solids. At the critical point the Fermi surface connectivity changes, and topological properties undergo a transition. Opportunities to systematically pass a VHS at the turn of a voltage knob and study its diverse impact are however rare. With the advent of van der Waals heterostructures, control over the atomic registry of neighboring graphene layers offers an unprecedented tool to generate a low energy VHS easily accessible with conventional gating. Here we have addressed magnetotransport when the chemical potential crosses the twist angle induced VHS in twisted bilayer graphene. A topological phase transition is experimentally disclosed in the abrupt conversion of electrons to holes or vice versa, a loss of a nonzero Berry phase and distinct sequences of integer quantum Hall states above and below the singularity.