• 文献标题:   Current switching of valley polarization in twisted bilayer graphene
  • 文献类型:   Article
  • 作  者:   YING XZ, YE MX, BALENTS L
  • 作者关键词:  
  • 出版物名称:   PHYSICAL REVIEW B
  • ISSN:   2469-9950 EI 2469-9969
  • 通讯作者地址:  
  • 被引频次:   7
  • DOI:   10.1103/PhysRevB.103.115436
  • 出版年:   2021

▎ 摘  要

Twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) aligned with hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) substrate can exhibit an anomalous Hall effect at 3/4 filling due to the spontaneous valley polarization in valley resolved moire bands with opposite Chern number [Science 367, 900 (2020); 365, 605 (2019)]. It was observed that a small DC current is able to switch the valley polarization and reverse the sign of the Hall conductance [Science 367, 900 (2020); 365. 605 (2019)]. Here, we discuss the mechanism of the current switching of valley polarization near the transition temperature, where bulk dissipative transport dominates. We show that for a sample with rotational symmetry breaking, a DC current may generate an electron density difference between the two valleys (valley density difference). The current induced valley density difference in turn induces a first-order transition in the valley polarization. We emphasize that the intervalley scattering plays a central role since it is the channel for exchanging electrons between the two valleys. We further estimate the valley density difference in the TBG/h-BN system with a microscopic model and find a significant enhancement of the effect in the magic angle regime.