Interaction phenomena in graphene seen through quantum capacitance.

Yu, G L; Jalil, R; Belle, Branson; Mayorov, Alexander S; Blake, Peter; Schedin, Frederick; Morozov, Sergey V; Ponomarenko, Leonid A et al. · Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · 2013

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Capacitance measurements provide a powerful means of probing the density of states. The technique has proved particularly successful in studying 2D electron systems, revealing a number of interesting many-body effects. Here, we use large-area high-quality graphene capacitors to study behavior of the density of states in this material in zero and high magnetic fields. Clear renormalization of the linear spectrum due to electron-electron interactions is observed in zero field. Quantizing fields lead to splitting of the spin- and valley-degenerate Landau levels into quartets separated by interaction-enhanced energy gaps. These many-body states exhibit negative compressibility but the compressibility returns to positive in ultrahigh B. The reentrant behavior is attributed to a competition between field-enhanced interactions and nascent fractional states.