Quantum Hall effect in polycrystalline graphene: The role of grain boundaries

Abstract

We use numerical simulations to predict peculiar magnetotransport fingerprints in polycrystalline graphene, driven by the presence of grain boundaries of varying size and orientation. The formation of Landau levels is shown to be restricted by the polycrystalline morphology, requiring the magnetic length to be smaller than the average grain radius. The nature of localization is also found to be unusual, with strongly localized states at the center of Landau levels (including the usually highly robust zero-energy state) and extended electronic states lying between Landau levels. These extended states percolate along the network of grain boundaries, resulting in a finite value for the bulk dissipative conductivity and suppression of the quantized Hall conductance. Such breakdown of the quantum Hall regime provoked by extended structural defects is also illustrated through two-terminal Landauer-Büttiker conductance calculations, indicating how a single grain boundary induces cross-linking between edge states lying at opposite sides of a ribbon geometry.

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Quantum Hall resistance standards from graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition on silicon carbide
• Multiscale modeling of polycrystalline graphene: A comparison of structure and defect energies of realistic samples from phase field crystal models
• Efficient Linear Scaling Approach for Computing the Kubo Hall Conductivity
• Destroyed quantum Hall effect in graphene with [0001] tilt grain boundaries