Link between cascade phenomenon and correlated Chern insulators in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 41152251.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-025-64520-w and PMC identifier 12569382.
- Licence recorded as CC BY-NC-ND.
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Abstract
Chern insulators are topologically non-trivial states of matter characterized by incompressible bulk and chiral edge states. Incorporating topological Chern bands with strong electronic correlations provides a versatile playground for studying emergent quantum phenomena. In this study, we resolve the correlated Chern insulators (CCIs) satisfying | ν | +|C | = 4 in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (MATBG) through Rydberg exciton sensing and unveil their direct link with the zero-field cascade features in the electronic compressibility. The compressibility minima in the cascade are found to deviate substantially from nearby integer fillings (by Δν) and coincide with the onsets of CCIs in doping densities, yielding a quasi-universal relation B<sub>c</sub> = Φ<sub>0</sub>Δν/C (onset magnetic field B<sub>c</sub>, magnetic flux quantumΦ<sub>0</sub> and Chern number C). We suggest these onsets lie on the intersection where the integer filling of localized "f-orbitals" and Chern bands are simultaneously reached. Our findings update the field-dependent phase diagram of MATBG and directly support the topological heavy fermion model.