1. Interplay of electronic crystals with integer and fractional Chern insulators in moir\'e pentalayer graphene
- Author
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Waters, Dacen, Okounkova, Anna, Su, Ruiheng, Zhou, Boran, Yao, Jiang, Watanabe, Kenji, Taniguchi, Takashi, Xu, Xiaodong, Zhang, Ya-Hui, Folk, Joshua, and Yankowitz, Matthew
- Subjects
Condensed Matter - Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics ,Condensed Matter - Strongly Correlated Electrons - Abstract
The rapid development of moir\'e quantum matter has recently led to the remarkable discovery of the fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect, and sparked predictions of other novel correlation-driven topological states. Here, we investigate the interplay of electronic crystals with integer and fractional Chern insulators in a moir\'e lattice of rhomobohedral pentalayer graphene (RPG) aligned with hexagonal boron nitride. At a doping of one electron per moir\'e unit cell, we see a correlated insulator with a Chern number that can be tuned between $C=0$ and $+1$ by an electric displacement field, accompanied by an array of other such insulators formed at fractional band fillings, $\nu$. Collectively, these states likely correspond to trivial and topological electronic crystals, some of which spontaneously break the discrete translational symmetry of the moir\'e lattice. Upon applying a modest magnetic field, a narrow region forms around $\nu=2/3$ in which transport measurements imply the emergence of a fractional Chern insulator, along with hints of weaker states at other fractional $\nu$. In the same sample, we also see a unique sequence of incipient Chern insulators arising over a broad range of incommensurate band filling near two holes per moir\'e unit cell. Our results establish moir\'e RPG as a fertile platform for studying the competition and potential intertwining of electronic crystallization and topological charge fractionalization., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, extended data, 10 extended data figures, 13 supplementary information figures
- Published
- 2024