Deconfined fractional electric charges in graphene at high magnetic fields

2009/09/30 by Chang-Yu Hou, Claudio Chamon, Christopher Mudry
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Asymmetry #Charge (physics) #Condensed matter physics #Divergence (linguistics) #Electron #Graphene #Graphene research and applications #Instability #Magnetic field #Physics #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum mechanics #Vortex #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.str-el

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.81.075427

published as Phys. Rev. B 81, 075427 (2010) · 11 pages, 2 figures

openalex publication_date 2010/02/23 · arxiv created 2010/02/26 · arxiv updated 2015/05/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

The resistance at the charge neutral (Dirac) point was shown by Checkelsky et al. [Phys. Rev. B 79, 115434 (2009)] to diverge upon the application of a strong magnetic field normal to graphene. We argue that this divergence is the signature for a Kekul'e instability of graphene, which is induced by the magnetic field. We show that the strong magnetic field does not remove the zero modes that bind a fraction of the electron around vortices in the Kekul'e dimerization pattern, and that quenched disorder present in the system makes it energetically possible to separate the fractional charges. These findings, altogether, indicate that graphene can sustain deconfined fractionalized electrons.

Citations

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