Valley Order and Loop Currents in Graphene on Hexagonal Boron Nitride
arXiv:1404.5005 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.91.121412
Abstract
In this letter, we examine the role of Coulomb interactions in the emergence of macroscopically ordered states in graphene supported on hexagonal boron nitride substrates. Due to incommensuration effects with the substrate, graphene can develop gapped low energy modes that spatially conform into a triangular superlattice of quantum rings. In the presence of these modes, we show that Coulomb interactions lead to spontaneous formation of chiral loop currents in bulk and to macroscopic spin-valley order at zero temperature. We show that this exotic state breaks time reversal symmetry and can be detected with interferometry and polar Kerr measurements.
arXiv comment4.5 pages + supplementary materials; additional changes and references included
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- Designing Quantum Spin-Orbital Liquids in Artificial Mott Insulators
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- Substrate effects on transport properties of a biased AA-stacked bilayer graphene
- Stability of the smectic phase in arrays of parallel quantum wires
- Emergent exotic chirality dependent dielectricity in magnetic twisted bilayer system