Stacking Faults, Bound States, and Quantum Hall Plateaus in Crystalline Graphite

TL;DR

This paper investigates how stacking faults in crystalline graphite create bound states and influence quantum Hall effects, revealing observable surface phenomena and potential for multiple quantum Hall plateaus in doped rhombohedral graphite.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of stacking defect bound states and their Landau level structure, with implications for surface spectroscopy and the 3D quantum Hall effect in graphite.

Findings

Bound states form at stacking faults with specific dispersion relations.

Stacking faults lead to observable effects in surface spectroscopy.

Rhombohedral graphite can exhibit multiple 3DQHE plateaus when doped.

Abstract

We analyze the electronic properties of a simple stacking defect in Bernal graphite. We show that a bound state forms, which disperses as $|\bfk-\bfK|^3$ in the vicinity of either of the two inequivalent zone corners $\bfK$. In the presence of a strong c-axis magnetic field, this bound state develops a Landau level structure which for low energies behaves as $E\nd_n\propto |n B|^{3/2}$. We show that buried stacking faults have observable consequences for surface spectroscopy, and we discuss the implications for the three-dimensional quantum Hall effect (3DQHE). We also analyze the Landau level structure and chiral surface states of rhombohedral graphite, and show that, when doped, it should exhibit multiple 3DQHE plateaus at modest fields.