• 文献标题:   Nanoscale imaging of equilibrium quantum Hall edge currents and of the magnetic monopole response in graphene
  • 文献类型:   Article
  • 作  者:   URI A, KIM Y, BAGANI K, LEWANDOWSKI CK, GROVER S, AUERBACH N, LACHMAN EO, MYASOEDOV Y, TANIGUCHI T, WATANABE K, SMET J, ZELDOV E
  • 作者关键词:  
  • 出版物名称:   NATURE PHYSICS
  • ISSN:   1745-2473 EI 1745-2481
  • 通讯作者地址:   Weizmann Inst Sci
  • 被引频次:   5
  • DOI:   10.1038/s41567-019-0713-3 EA DEC 2019
  • 出版年:   2020

▎ 摘  要

Although the recently predicted topological magnetoelectric effect(1) and the response to an electric charge that mimics an induced mirror magnetic monopole(2) are fundamental attributes of topological states of matter with broken time-reversal symmetry, so far they have not been directly observed in experiments. Using a SQUID-on-tip(3), acting simultaneously as a tunable scanning electric charge and as an ultrasensitive nanoscale magnetometer, we induce and directly image the microscopic currents generating the magnetic monopole response in a graphene quantum Hall electron system. We find a rich and complex nonlinear behaviour, governed by the coexistence of topological and non-topological equilibrium currents, that is not captured by the monopole models(2). Furthermore, by imaging the equilibrium currents of individual quantum Hall edge states, we reveal that the edge states, which are commonly assumed to carry only a chiral downstream current, in fact carry a pair of counterpropagating currents(4), in which the topological downstream current in the incompressible region is counterbalanced by a non-topological upstream current flowing in the adjacent compressible region. The intricate patterns of the counterpropagating equilibrium-state orbital currents provide insights into the microscopic origins of the topological and non-topological charge and energy flow in quantum Hall systems. The microscopic quantum Hall edge currents and the equilibrium currents that generate the mirror magnetic monopoles in time-reversal-symmetry-broken topological matter are directly imaged in the quantum Hall state in graphene by using a SQUID-on-tip.