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Valleytronics

Could use a break

Nature Physics volume 11, pages 989–990 (2015)Cite this article

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Electric fields can controllably break the inversion symmetry of bilayer graphene, which can be harnessed to generate pure valley currents.

It is well known that the group velocity of a wave packet is caused by the momentum dispersion of the phase. Similarly, the momentum dispersion of the Berry phase contributes to a drift velocity of the wave packet perpendicular to the electric field. This yields a transverse current comparable to the Hall effect, but arising from the topological properties of the band structure. As they report in Nature Physics, two groups demonstrate unprecedented control over the Berry curvature of bilayer graphene, which allows the electrical generation and control of pure valley currents in this material2,3.

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Figure 1: Valley Hall effect.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gleb Finkelstein is in the Department of Physics at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA,

    Gleb Finkelstein

  2. François Amet is in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina 28607, USA,

    François Amet

Authors
  1. François Amet
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  2. Gleb Finkelstein
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Correspondence to François Amet or Gleb Finkelstein.

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Amet, F., Finkelstein, G. Could use a break. Nature Phys 11, 989–990 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3587

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