Investigation of the stability of graphene devices for quantum resistance metrology at direct and alternating current

Interlaboratory comparisons of the quantized Hall resistance are essential to verify the international coherence of primary impedance standards. Here we report on the investigation of the stability of p-doped graphene-based quantized Hall resistance devices at direct and alternating currents at CMI, KRISS, and PTB. To improve the stability of the electronic transport properties of the polymer encapsulated device, it was shipped in an over-pressurized transport chamber. The agreement of the quantized resistance with RK/2 at direct current was on the order of 1 nΩ/Ω between 3.5 T and 7.5 T at a temperature of 4.2 K despite changes in the carrier density during the shipping of the devices. At alternating current, the quantized resistance was realized in a double-shielded graphene Hall device. Preliminary measurements with digital impedance bridges demonstrate the good reproducibility of the quantized resistance near the frequency of 1 kHz within 0.1 μΩ/Ω throughout the international delivery.

Quantum Hall Effect across Graphene Grain Boundary

Charge carrier scattering at grain boundaries (GBs) in a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) graphene reduces the carrier mobility and degrades the performance of the graphene device, which is expected to affect the quantum Hall effect (QHE). This study investigated the influence of individual GBs on the QH state at different stitching angles of the GB in a monolayer CVD graphene. The measured voltage probes of the equipotential line in the QH state showed that the longitudinal resistance (Rxx) was affected by the scattering of the GB only in the low carrier concentration region, and the standard QHE of a monolayer graphene was observed regardless of the stitching angle of the GB. In addition, a controlled device with an added metal bar placed in the middle of the Hall bar configuration was introduced. Despite the fact that the equipotential lines in the controlled device were broken by the additional metal bar, only the Rxx was affected by nonzero resistance, whereas the Hall resistance (Rxy) revealed the well-quantized plateaus in the QH state. Thus, our study clarifies the effect of individual GBs on the QH states of graphenes.

Quantum anomalous Hall edge channels survive up to the Curie temperature

Achieving metrological precision of quantum anomalous Hall resistance quantization at zero magnetic field so far remains limited to temperatures of the order of 20 mK, while the Curie temperature in the involved material is as high as 20 K. The reason for this discrepancy remains one of the biggest open questions surrounding the effect, and is the focus of this article. Here we show, through a careful analysis of the non-local voltages on a multi-terminal Corbino geometry, that the chiral edge channels continue to exist without applied magnetic field up to the Curie temperature of bulk ferromagnetism of the magnetic topological insulator, and that thermally activated bulk conductance is responsible for this quantization breakdown. Our results offer important insights on the nature of the topological protection of these edge channels, provide an encouraging sign for potential applications, and establish the multi-terminal Corbino geometry as a powerful tool for the study of edge channel transport in topological materials.

Tunable Berry curvature and transport crossover in topological Dirac semimetal KZnBi

Topological Dirac semimetals have emerged as a platform to engineer Berry curvature with time-reversal symmetry breaking, which allows to access diverse quantum states in a single material system. It is of interest to realize such diversity in Dirac semimetals that provides insight on correlation between Berry curvature and quantum transport phenomena. Here, we report the transition between anomalous Hall and chiral fermion states in three-dimensional topological Dirac semimetal KZnBi, which is demonstrated by tuning the direction and flux of Berry curvature. Angle-dependent magneto-transport measurements show that both anomalous Hall resistance and positive magnetoresistance are maximized at 0° between net Berry curvature and rotational axis. We find that the unexpected crossover of anomalous Hall resistance and negative magnetoresistance suddenly occurs when the angle reaches to ~70°, indicating that Berry curvature strongly correlates with quantum transports of Dirac and chiral fermions. It would be interesting to tune Berry curvature within other quantum phases such as topological superconductivity.

Magnetic-field-induced robust zero Hall plateau state in MnBi2Te4 Chern insulator

The intrinsic antiferromagnetic topological insulator MnBi2Te4 provides an ideal platform for exploring exotic topological quantum phenomena. Recently, the Chern insulator and axion insulator phases have been realized in few-layer MnBi2Te4 devices at low magnetic field regime. However, the fate of MnBi2Te4 in high magnetic field has never been explored in experiment. In this work, we report transport studies of exfoliated MnBi2Te4 flakes in pulsed magnetic fields up to 61.5 T. In the high-field limit, the Chern insulator phase with Chern number C = −1 evolves into a robust zero Hall resistance plateau state. Nonlocal transport measurements and theoretical calculations demonstrate that the charge transport in the zero Hall plateau state is conducted by two counter-propagating edge states that arise from the combined effects of Landau levels and large Zeeman effect in strong magnetic fields. Our result demonstrates the intricate interplay among intrinsic magnetic order, external magnetic field, and nontrivial band topology in MnBi2Te4.

Development of Electrical Quantities Primary Standards

The developments of primary standards for electrical quantities that practically realize the electrical units such as ampere (A), volt (V), ohm (Ω), and farad (F) are introduced in this manuscript. These quantities are achieved in consistency with their definitions. According to the new definition of ampere, current can be realized directly such as single electron transport (SET) pump or indirectly using Ohm’s law. For the SET pump, developments are ongoing as trials to obtain higher current values with lower associated uncertainty to be suitable for metrological applications. With the discoveries of the Effects of Josephson and quantum Hall, it has become possible to consider quantum electrical standards that relate the volt and ohm units to h and e through the Josephson and the von Klitzing constants, respectively. The dc programmable Josephson standard was developed to overcome the problems of conventional standards such as stability and noise immunity with lower cost. Developments are continuing on ac Josephson standards to improve performance and increase output voltages and frequencies. For ac voltage measurements for voltages up to 1000 V, thermal voltage converters are introduced to extend the traceability for measuring the ac voltages in the frequency range from 10 Hz to 100 MHz where quantum-based ac standards still have limitations. Thermal current converters are used as the most accurate and precise standard for measurement of ac currents. The realization of ohm is done by the quantum Hall effect through a quantum Hall resistance (QHR) standard. Developments are occurring to make it simpler, more precise and accurate. The efforts that have been made to increase the values of the resistance quantum hall standard to disseminate its accuracy to other standard resistors to help in industry are also introduced. The farad is practically achieved by the calculable cross-capacitor. The calculable capacitor acts as the ac impedance primary standard because it can transfer the traceability to other impedances by using bridges such as the quadrature bridge. The development is occurring on its displacement sensing system to allow greater accuracy.

Quantum anomalous Hall effect from intertwined moiré bands

Electron correlation and topology are two central threads of modern condensed matter physics. Semiconductor moiré materials provide a highly tunable platform for studies of electron correlation. Correlation-driven phenomena, including the Mott insulator, generalized Wigner crystals, stripe phases and continuous Mott transition, have been demonstrated. However, nontrivial band topology has remained elusive. Here we report the observation of a quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect in AB-stacked MoTe2/WSe2 moiré heterobilayers. Unlike in the AA-stacked structures, an out-of-plane electric field controls not only the bandwidth but also the band topology by intertwining moiré bands centered at different high-symmetry stacking sites. At half band filling, corresponding to one particle per moiré unit cell, we observe quantized Hall resistance, h/e^2 (with h and e denoting the Planck’s constant and electron charge, respectively), and vanishing longitudinal resistance at zero magnetic field. The electric-field-induced topological phase transition from a Mott insulator to a QAH insulator precedes an insulator-to-metal transition; contrary to most known topological phase transitions, it is not accompanied by a bulk charge gap closure. Our study paves the path for discovery of a wealth of emergent phenomena arising from the combined influence of strong correlation and topology in semiconductor moiré materials.

Electric Double Layer Doping of Charge-Ordered Insulators α-(BEDT-TTF)2I3 and α-(BETS)2I3

Field-effect transistors based on strongly correlated insulators are an excellent platform for studying the electronic phase transition and simultaneously developing phase transition transistors. Molecular conductors are suitable for phase transition transistors owing to the high tunability of the electronic states. Molecular Mott transistors show field-induced phase transitions including superconducting transitions. However, their application to charge-ordered insulators is limited. In this study, we fabricated electric double layer transistors based on quarter-filled charge-ordered insulators α-(BEDT-TTF)2I3 and α-(BETS)2I3. We observed ambipolar field effects in both compounds where both electron and hole doping (up to the order of 1013 cm−2) reduces the resistance by the band filling shift from the commensurate value. The maximum field-effect mobilities are approximately 10 and 55 cm2/Vs, and the gate-induced conductivities are 0.96 and 3.6 e2/h in α-(BEDT-TTF)2I3 and α-(BETS)2I3, respectively. However, gate-induced metallic conduction does not emerge. The gate voltage dependence of the activation energy in α-(BEDT-TTF)2I3 and the Hall resistance in α-(BETS)2I3 imply that the electric double layer doping in the present experimental setup induces hopping transport rather than band-like two-dimensional transport.