Stacking boundaries and transport in bilayer graphene

Abstract

Pristine bilayer graphene behaves in some instances as an insulator with a transport gap of a few meV. This behaviour has been interpreted as the result of an intrinsic electronic instability induced by many-body correlations. Intriguingly, however, some samples of similar mobility exhibit good metallic properties, with a minimal conductivity of the order of $2e^2/h$. Here we propose an explanation for this dichotomy, which is unrelated to electron interactions and based instead on the reversible formation of boundaries between stacking domains (`solitons'). We argue, using a numerical analysis, that the hallmark features of the previously inferred many-body insulating state can be explained by scattering on boundaries between domains with different stacking order (AB and BA). We furthermore present experimental evidence, reinforcing our interpretation, of reversible switching between a metallic and an insulating regime in suspended bilayers when subjected to thermal cycling or high current annealing.

13 pages, 15 figures. Published version (Nano Letters)

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• Topologically confined states at corrugations of gated bilayer graphene
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• Energetics and Structure of Domain Wall Networks in Minimally Twisted Bilayer Graphene under Strain
• Anomalous Dirac point transport due to extended defects in bilayer graphene
• Two phases with different domain wall networks and a reentrant phase transition in bilayer graphene under strain
• Electronic transport in graphene with out-of-plane disorder
• Existence of nontrivial topologically protected states at grain boundaries in bilayer graphene: signatures and electrical switching
• Signature of multilayer graphene strain-controlled domain walls in quantum Hall effect
• Topologically protected gap states and resonances in gated trilayer graphene
• Edge stacking dislocations in two-dimensional bilayers with a small lattice mismatch
• Single layer graphene with electronic properties as gated bilayer
• Electron transmission through the stacking domain boundary in multilayers graphene
• Electrically controllable magnetic order in the bilayer Hubbard model on honeycomb lattice --- a determinant quantum Monte Carlo study
• Structural and electronic signatures of strain-tunable marginally twisted bilayer graphene
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• Long wavelength interdomain phonons and instability of dislocations in small-angle twisted bilayers
• Phase boundary of spin-polarized-current state of electrons in bilayer graphene
• Local optical conductivity of strain solitons in bilayer graphene with arbitrary soliton angle
• Robust structural superlubricity of twisted graphene bilayer and domain walls between commensurate moiré pattern domains from first-principles calculations