Transport signatures of valley polarization in graphene multilayers: In-plane linear magnetoconductivity vs anomalous Hall effect

TL;DR

This paper proposes in-plane linear magnetoconductivity as a new transport signature of valley polarization in multilayer graphene, especially when the anomalous Hall effect is absent, supported by theoretical calculations.

Contribution

It introduces in-plane linear magnetoconductivity as an alternative probe of valley polarization in multilayer graphene, expanding experimental detection methods beyond the anomalous Hall effect.

Findings

LMC can detect valley polarization even when AHE vanishes.

In twisted bilayer graphene, LMC is finite without substrate symmetry breaking.

In rhombohedral multilayers, LMC and AHE both track valley polarization.

Abstract

In two-dimensional materials where interacting Fermi pockets occur in valleys related by time-reversal symmetry, a spontaneous valley imbalance results in a novel state known as an orbital magnet. Due to the breaking of time-reversal symmetry, this state can be probed in transport experiments by the violation of Onsager relations, most often done through the anomalous Hall effect (AHE). Here we propose that odd-in-field, in-plane linear magnetoconductivity (LMC) is an alternative probe of valley polarization which can occur even when the AHE vanishes. In multilayer structures, the effect originates from in-plane orbital moments and Berry curvatures enabled by interlayer tunneling and dominates over the spin response. After a classification of many recently studied multilayers, we focus on two valley polarized examples: twisted bilayer graphene, where LMC is finite but the AHE vanishes unless additional symmetry breaking from the substrate is present, and rhombohedral graphene multilayers, where LMC and AHE both track valley polarization because they have the same symmetry. Using self-consistent Hartree-Fock and semiclassical transport calculations, we present detailed predictions of LMR for these two examples and analyze the implications for recent experiments.