Energy dissipation on magic angle twisted bilayer graphene

Abstract

Traditional Joule dissipation omnipresent in today’s electronic devices is well understood while the energy loss of the strongly interacting electron systems remains largely unexplored. Twisted bilayer graphene (tBLG) is a host to interaction-driven correlated insulating phases, when the relative rotation is close to the magic angle (1.08∘). We report on low-temperature (5K) nanomechanical energy dissipation of tBLG measured by pendulum atomic force microscopy (p-AFM). The ultrasensitive cantilever tip acting as an oscillating gate over the quantum device shows dissipation peaks attributed to different fractional fillings of the flat energy bands. Local detection allows to determine the twist angle and spatially resolved dissipation images showed the existence of hundred-nanometer domains of different doping. Application of magnetic fields provoked strong oscillations of the dissipation signal at 3/4 band filling, identified in analogy to Aharonov-Bohm oscillations, a wavefunction interference present between domains of different doping and a signature of orbital ferromagnetism.

Editorial: Dynamics at surfaces: understanding energy dissipation and physicochemical processes at the atomic and molecular level

“…The processes of energy dissipation at solid interfaces (see Figure 1) are integral to numerous physical phenomena ranging from catalytic reactions and astrochemistry to lubrication and materials science including the development of nanostructures (Ertl, 2009;Yang and Wodtke, 2016;Park et al, 2019;Ollier et al, 2023). Despite its ubiquity and importance in both technological applications and natural systems these surface dynamical processes remain poorly understood (Yang and Wodtke, 2016;Park et al, 2019;Sacchi and Tamtögl, 2023;Yu et al, 2023).…”