Symmetry-Broken Chern Insulators in Twisted Double Bilayer Graphene

Nano Lett. 2023 Dec 13;23(23):11066-11072. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c03414. Epub 2023 Nov 20.

Abstract

Twisted double bilayer graphene (tDBG) has emerged as a rich platform for studying strongly correlated and topological states, as its flat bands can be continuously tuned by both a perpendicular displacement field and a twist angle. Here, we construct a phase diagram representing the correlated and topological states as a function of these parameters, based on measurements of over a dozen tDBG devices encompassing two distinct stacking configurations. We find a hierarchy of symmetry-broken states that emerge sequentially as the twist angle approaches an apparent optimal value of θ ≈ 1.34°. Nearby this angle, we discover a symmetry-broken Chern insulator (SBCI) state associated with a band filling of 7/2 as well as an incipient SBCI state associated with 11/3 filling. We further observe an anomalous Hall effect at zero field in all samples supporting SBCI states, indicating spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking and possible moiré unit cell enlargement at zero magnetic field.

Keywords: anomalous Hall effect; moiré; symmetry-broken Chern insulators; twisted double bilayer graphene.