Entropic evidence for a Pomeranchuk effect in magic angle graphene

TL;DR

This study reveals a Pomeranchuk-like effect in magic angle graphene, where increasing temperature leads to a high-entropy correlated state with magnetic moments, characterized by a phase transition driven by entropy and magnetic field.

Contribution

It demonstrates the existence of a Pomeranchuk-like transition in twisted bilayer graphene, combining high entropy, magnetic moments, and a phase boundary mapped across various parameters.

Findings

Large entropy (~1kB per unit cell) near one electron filling

Magnetic field quenches the excess entropy, indicating magnetic origin

Phase transition marked by a compressibility drop and Fermi level reset

Abstract

In the 1950's, Pomeranchuk predicted that, counterintuitively, liquid 3He may solidify upon heating, due to a high excess spin entropy in the solid phase. Here, using both local and global electronic entropy and compressibility measurements, we show that an analogous effect occurs in magic angle twisted bilayer graphene. Near a filling of one electron per moir'e unit cell, we observe a dramatic increase in the electronic entropy to about 1kB per unit cell. This large excess entropy is quenched by an in-plane magnetic field, pointing to its magnetic origin. A sharp drop in the compressibility as a function of the electron density, associated with a reset of the Fermi level back to the vicinity of the Dirac point, marks a clear boundary between two phases. We map this jump as a function of electron density, temperature, and magnetic field. This reveals a phase diagram that is consistent with a Pomeranchuk-like temperature- and field-driven transition from a low-entropy electronic liquid to a high-entropy correlated state with nearly-free magnetic moments. The correlated state features an unusual combination of seemingly contradictory properties, some associated with itinerant electrons, such as the absence of a thermodynamic gap, metallicity, and a Dirac-like compressibility, and others associated with localized moments, such as a large entropy and its disappearance with magnetic field. Moreover, the energy scales characterizing these two sets of properties are very different: whereas the compressibility jump onsets at T~30K, the bandwidth of magnetic excitations is ~3K or smaller. The hybrid nature of the new correlated state and the large separation of energy scales have key implications for the physics of correlated states in twisted bilayer graphene.