Giant oscillations in a triangular network of one-dimensional states in marginally twisted graphene

Nat Commun. 2019 Sep 5;10(1):4008. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-11971-7.

Abstract

At very small twist angles of ∼0.1°, bilayer graphene exhibits a strain-accompanied lattice reconstruction that results in submicron-size triangular domains with the standard, Bernal stacking. If the interlayer bias is applied to open an energy gap inside the domain regions making them insulating, such marginally twisted bilayer graphene is expected to remain conductive due to a triangular network of chiral one-dimensional states hosted by domain boundaries. Here we study electron transport through this helical network and report giant Aharonov-Bohm oscillations that reach in amplitude up to 50% of resistivity and persist to temperatures above 100 K. At liquid helium temperatures, the network exhibits another kind of oscillations that appear as a function of carrier density and are accompanied by a sign-changing Hall effect. The latter are attributed to consecutive population of the narrow minibands formed by the network of one-dimensional states inside the gap.