Spectroscopic Characterization of Landau Level Splitting and the Intermediate v = 0 Phase in Bilayer Graphene

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution STM and STS to investigate Landau level splittings and the v=0 phase in bilayer graphene, revealing many-body effects and directly visualizing an orbital-polarized intermediate state.

Contribution

It provides the first atomic-scale spectroscopic evidence of the orbital-polarized v=0 phase and details the many-body effects influencing Landau level splittings in bilayer graphene.

Findings

Observation of valley, spin, and orbital Landau level splittings.

Enhanced splittings at partial filling states.

Visualization of the orbital-polarized v=0 phase.

Abstract

Despite various novel broken symmetry states have been revealed in bilayer graphene (BLG) experimentally, the atomic-scale spectroscopic investigation has been greatly limited. Here, we study high-resolution spectroscopic characteristics of high-quality BLG and observe rich broken-symmetry-induced Landau level (LL) splittings, including valley, spin and orbit, by using ultralow-temperature and high-magnetic-field scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM and STS). Our experiment demonstrates that both the spin and orbital splittings of the lowest n = (0,1) LL depend sensitively on its filling and exhibit an obvious enhancement at partial-filling states. More unexpectedly, the splitting of a fully-filled and valley-polarized LL is also enhanced by partial filling of the LL with the opposite valley. These results reveal significant many-body effects in this system. At half filling of the n = (0,1) LL (filling factor v = 0), a single-particle intermediate v = 0 phase, which is the transition state between canted antiferromagnetic and layer-polarized states in the BLG, is measured and directly visualized at the atomic scale. Our atomic-scale STS measurement gives direct evidence that this intermediate v = 0 state is the predicted orbital-polarized phase.