Heavy Dirac fermions in a graphene/topological insulator hetero-junction

TL;DR

This paper predicts the formation of heavy Dirac fermions in a graphene/topological insulator hetero-junction due to strong hybridization, leading to highly non-linear dispersion and potential quantum Hall states.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of heavy Dirac fermions arising from hybridization effects in hetero-junctions, combining ab initio and low-energy models.

Findings

Strong hybridization reduces Fermi velocity of Dirac fermions.

Negligible linear term enhances interaction effects.

Heavy Dirac fermions can induce half quantum Hall states.

Abstract

The low energy physics of both graphene and surface states of three-dimensional topological insulators is described by gapless Dirac fermions with linear dispersion. In this work, we predict the emergence of a "heavy" Dirac fermion in a graphene/topological insulator hetero-junction, where the linear term almost vanishes and the corresponding energy dispersion becomes highly non-linear. By combining {\it ab initio} calculations and an effective low-energy model, we show explicitly how strong hybridization between Dirac fermions in graphene and the surface states of topological insulators can reduce the Fermi velocity of Dirac fermions. Due to the negligible linear term, interaction effects will be greatly enhanced and can drive "heavy" Dirac fermion states into the half quantum Hall state with non-zero Hall conductance.