Dmitry Smirnov

Stacking-dependent band gap and quantum transport in trilayer graphene

Graphene is an extraordinary two-dimensional (2D) system with chiral charge carriers and fascinating electronic, mechanical and thermal properties. In multilayer graphene, stacking order provides an important yet rarely explored degree of freedom for tuning its electronic properties. For instance, Bernal-stacked trilayer graphene (B-TLG) is semi-metallic with a tunable band overlap, and rhombohedral-stacked trilayer graphene (r-TLG) is predicted to be semiconducting with a tunable band gap. These multilayer graphenes are also expected to exhibit rich novel phenomena at low charge densities owing to enhanced electronic interactions and competing symmetries. Here we demonstrate the dramatically different transport properties in TLG with different stacking orders, and the unexpected spontaneous gap opening in charge neutral r-TLG. At the Dirac point, B-TLG remains metallic, whereas r-TLG becomes insulating with an intrinsic interaction-driven gap ~6 meV. In magnetic fields, well-developed quantum Hall (QH) plateaux in r-TLG split into three branches at higher fields. Such splitting is a signature of the Lifshitz transition, a topological change in the Fermi surface, that is found only in r-TLG. Our results underscore the rich interaction-induced phenomena in trilayer graphene with different stacking orders, and its potential towards electronic applications.

New First Order Raman-active Modes in Few Layered Transition Metal Dichalcogenides

Although the main Raman features of semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides are well known for the monolayer and bulk, there are important differences exhibited by few layered systems which have not been fully addressed. WSe2 samples were synthesized and ab-initio calculations carried out. We calculated phonon dispersions and Raman-active modes in layered systems: WSe2, MoSe2, WS2 and MoS2 ranging from monolayers to five-layers and the bulk. First, we confirmed that as the number of layers increase, the E′, E″ and E2g modes shift to lower frequencies, and the A′1 and A1g modes shift to higher frequencies. Second, new high frequency first order A′1 and A1g modes appear, explaining recently reported experimental data for WSe2, MoSe2 and MoS2. Third, splitting of modes around A′1 and A1g is found which explains those observed in MoSe2. Finally, exterior and interior layers possess different vibrational frequencies. Therefore, it is now possible to precisely identify few-layered STMD.

Transport spectroscopy of symmetry-broken insulating states in bilayer graphene

Bilayer graphene is an attractive platform for studying new two-dimensional electron physics, because its flat energy bands are sensitive to out-of-plane electric fields and these bands magnify electron-electron interaction effects. Theory predicts a variety of interesting broken symmetry states when the electron density is at the carrier neutrality point, and some of these states are characterized by spontaneous mass gaps, which lead to insulating behaviour. These proposed gaps are analogous to the masses generated by broken symmetries in particle physics, and they give rise to large Berry phase effects accompanied by spontaneous quantum Hall effects. Although recent experiments have provided evidence for strong electronic correlations near the charge neutrality point, the presence of gaps remains controversial. Here, we report transport measurements in ultraclean double-gated bilayer graphene and use source-drain bias as a spectroscopic tool to resolve a gap of ∼2 meV at the charge neutrality point. The gap can be closed by a perpendicular electric field of strength ∼15 mV nm(-1), but it increases monotonically with magnetic field, with an apparent particle-hole asymmetry above the gap. These data represent the first spectroscopic mapping of the ground states in bilayer graphene in the presence of both electric and magnetic fields.

Hall and field-effect mobilities in few layered p-WSe2 field-effect transistors

Here, we present a temperature (T) dependent comparison between field-effect and Hall mobilities in field-effect transistors based on few-layered WSe2 exfoliated onto SiO2. Without dielectric engineering and beyond a T-dependent threshold gate-voltage, we observe maximum hole mobilities approaching 350 cm2/Vs at T = 300 K. The hole Hall mobility reaches a maximum value of 650 cm2/Vs as T is lowered below ~150 K, indicating that insofar WSe2-based field-effect transistors (FETs) display the largest Hall mobilities among the transition metal dichalcogenides. The gate capacitance, as extracted from the Hall-effect, reveals the presence of spurious charges in the channel, while the two-terminal sheet resistivity displays two-dimensional variable-range hopping behavior, indicating carrier localization induced by disorder at the interface between WSe2 and SiO2. We argue that improvements in the fabrication protocols as, for example, the use of a substrate free of dangling bonds are likely to produce WSe2-based FETs displaying higher room temperature mobilities, i.e. approaching those of p-doped Si, which would make it a suitable candidate for high performance opto-electronics.

Ultrafast carrier and phonon dynamics in Bi2Se3 crystals

in this material, 11 particularly the electron‐electron, electron‐phonon, and phonon‐phonon interactions. In this letter, we report the ultrafast time-resolved optical spectroscopy study of Bi2Se3 crystals in both the time domain and the energy domain. Our measurements reveal three underlying relaxation processes in the transient response of Bi2Se3, each associated with different physical mechanisms. It is also shown that the relative strength of these processes is sensitive to air exposure of the samples. The observed charge trapping and air doping effects are likely due to the presence of Se vacancies, a major issue material scientists working to use the properties of Bi2Se3 will face in the near term. The Bi2Se3 single crystals studied in this work were synthesized via the Bridgman method at Purdue University and Fudan University. During crystal growth, the mixture of high purity elements was first deoxidized and purified by multiple vacuum distillations, and then heated to 850‐900 °C for 15 h, followed by a slow cool down under a controlled pressure of Se to compensate for possible Se vacancies. Afterwards, the samples were zone refined at a speed of 0.5‐1.5 mm/hour with a linear temperature gradient set to 4‐5 °C /cm, until a temperature of 670 °C was reached. The as-grown Bi2Se3 crystals from both groups are naturally n-doped due to remnant Se vacancies. 4 Hall mea

Magnetic brightening and control of dark excitons in monolayer WSe2

Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenide crystals, as direct-gap materials with strong light-matter interactions, have attracted much recent attention. Because of their spin-polarized valence bands and a predicted spin splitting at the conduction band edges, the lowest-lying excitons in WX2 (X = S, Se) are expected to be spin-forbidden and optically dark. To date, however, there has been no direct experimental probe of these dark excitons. Here, we show how an in-plane magnetic field can brighten the dark excitons in monolayer WSe2 and permit their properties to be observed experimentally. Precise energy levels for both the neutral and charged dark excitons are obtained and compared with ab initio calculations using the GW-BSE approach. As a result of their spin configuration, the brightened dark excitons exhibit much-increased emission and valley lifetimes. These studies directly probe the excitonic spin manifold and reveal the fine spin-splitting at the conduction band edges.

GaAs quantum box cascade lasers

Measurements of the light emission under strong magnetic field from quantum cascade lasers emitting at 9 and 11 μm are reported. The laser intensity shows strong oscillations as a function of the magnetic field. This effect is due to changes in the lifetime of the upper state of the laser transition, which is controlled by electron-optical phonon scattering. This process is strongly modified by the extra confinement imposed by a magnetic field applied perpendicular to the plane of the layers, which breaks the electron dispersion into discrete Landau levels. The experimental results are in remarkable agreement with our calculations of the phonon-limited lifetime. We also show that this experiment provides direct indications of the ratio of the scattering rates associated with the two nonradiative transitions in the active region.

High Photoresponsivity and Short Photoresponse Times in Few-Layered WSe2 Transistors

Here, we report the photoconducting response of field-effect transistors based on three atomic layers of chemical vapor transport grown WSe2 crystals mechanically exfoliated onto SiO2. We find that trilayered WSe2 field-effect transistors, built with the simplest possible architecture, can display high hole mobilities ranging from 350 cm(2)/(V s) at room temperature (saturating at a value of ∼500 cm(2)/(V s) below 50 K) displaying a strong photocurrent response, which leads to exceptionally high photoresponsivities up to 7 A/W under white light illumination of the entire channel for power densities p < 10(2) W/m(2). Under a fixed wavelength of λ = 532 nm and a laser spot size smaller than the conducting channel area, we extract photoresponsitivities approaching 100 mA/W with concomitantly high external quantum efficiencies up to ∼40% at room temperature. These values surpass values recently reported from more complex architectures, such as graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides based heterostructures. Also, trilayered WSe2 phototransistors display photoresponse times on the order of 10 μs. Our results indicate that the addition of a few atomic layers considerably decreases the photoresponse times, probably by minimizing the interaction with the substrates, while maintaining a very high photoresponsivity.

Thermal expansion coefficients of Bi2Se3 and Sb2Te3 crystals from 10 K to 270 K

Lattice constant of Bi2Se3 and Sb2Te3 crystals is determined by x-ray powder diffraction measurement in a wide temperature range. Linear thermal expansion coefficients (α) of the crystals are extracted, and considerable anisotropy between α|| and α⊥ is observed. The low temperature values of α can be fit well by the Debye model, while an anomalous behavior at above 150 K is evidenced and explained. Gruneisen parameters of the materials are also estimated at room temperature.

Magnetoconductance Oscillations and Evidence for Fractional Quantum Hall States in Suspended Bilayer and Trilayer Graphene

We report pronounced magnetoconductance oscillations observed on suspended bilayer and trilayer graphene devices with mobilities up to 270,000 cm/Vs. For bilayer devices, we observe conductance minima at all integer filling factors ν between 0 and -8, as well as a small plateau at ν=1/3. For trilayer devices, we observe features at ν=-1, -2, -3 and -4, and at ν~0.5 that persist to 4.5K at B=8T. All of these features persist for all accessible values of Vg and B, and could suggest the onset of symmetry breaking of the first few Landau (LL) levels and fractional quantum Hall states.