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Electronic transport in twisted double bilayer graphene

University of British Columbia

Two dimensional (2D) van der Waals materials with a lattice mismatch or a relative twist angle, stacked atop each other forms a moiré superlattice. The electronic properties of such a system can be modified by controlling the relative twist angle between the layers, the most famous example being magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene. Since the observation of correlated insulator states and superconductivity in this flat band moiré system, investigations on other 2D moiré systems has gathered pace. Two Bernal stacked bilayer graphene sheets twisted relative to each other, i.e., twisted double bilayer graphene, gives the additional opportunity of tuning the electronic structure by a displacement electric field. This thesis presents the fabrication and electrical transport measurements of twisted double bilayer graphene devices. In order to compare the efficacy of various fabrication techniques, we fabricated the devices using two different modified dry transfer techniques: “tear-and-stack” and “cut-and-stack”. By calculating the twist angles from the electrical transport data, we find the “cut-and-stack” technique to give a better control of the twist angle of the fabricated devices. Subsequently, we studied the transport properties of a device with a twist angle of 1.39 degree, in order to replicate the electronic phase diagram of twisted double bilayer graphene devices. Tuning the displacement electric field and carrier density independently in a double gated geometry, we were able to observe correlated insulating states at quarter, half and three-quarter filling of the moiré band for a range of electric field values. The evolution of these insulating states in an in-plane magnetic field suggests spin/valley polarization. Additionally, the metallic states surrounding the correlated insulating state at half-filling displays a strong temperature dependence and nonlinear current-voltage characteristics, the nature of which remains ambiguous in our measurements.

Text

2020-10-24

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/76356

Physics

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/