Transport Enhancement and In Situ Control of Electronic Correlation via Photoinduced Modulation Doping of van der Waals Heterostructures

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a simple, light-induced doping method in van der Waals heterostructures that allows reversible, precise control of electronic properties and enables the observation of correlated quantum states.

Contribution

It introduces a photoinduced modulation doping technique in 2D heterostructures that does not require additional fabrication steps and allows in situ tuning of electronic transport regimes.

Findings

Reversible tuning of graphene mobility and scattering length using light.

Switching between diffusive and quasi-ballistic transport regimes in situ.

Observation of quantum Hall isospin ferromagnetic states enabled by controlled disorder.

Abstract

Modulation doping, a well-established technique for traditional semiconductor heterostructures, is a promising approach for tailoring carrier concentration in 2D materials devices. In this letter we report on photoinduced modulation doping in hBN-graphene-hBN-SiO2 heterostructures utilizing standard white light sources and no additional fabrication complexity. We establish the use of this technique to both dope the channel material and to photoanneal devices, providing control over electronic doping and disorder in the graphene channel. We analyze the transport properties by employing Drude and Landauer transport models, highlighting the ability to reversibly tune the mobility and mean scattering length of the graphene with a high degree of accuracy. This tunability allows us to switch our device between the diffusive and quasi-ballistic transport regimes in situ. We utilize the exceptional control our technique provides over local disorder to realize quantum Hall isospin ferromagnetic states in a device whose initial quality would otherwise leave such states unobservable. These results demonstrate precise manipulation of carrier density and charge disorder in van der Waals heterostructures, providing a highly accessible approach to creating high-quality devices capable of realizing correlated electronic states.