Observation of Landau levels of Dirac fermions in graphite
Preprint
- 9 May 2007
Abstract
The low energy electronic excitations in single layer and bilayer graphite (graphene) resemble quantum-relativistic particles also known as Dirac Fermions (DF). They possess an internal degree of freedom, chirality, that leads to unusual Landau Level (LL) energy sequences in a magnetic field and profoundly alters the magneto-transport properties. One of the consequences is an anomalous Quantum-Hall effect, recently detected in both single layer and bi-layer graphene. However the underlying cause, the unusual LL sequence, was never observed. Here we report the direct observation of LL of DF by means of low temperature Scanning-Tunnelling-Spectroscopy (STS) on the surface of graphite in fields up to 12 Tesla. We find evidence of coexistence of massless and massive DF, and identify the zero-energy LL which is a unique consequence of their quantum-relativistic nature. Surprisingly these strictly two-dimensional properties emerge even on bulk graphite in samples where the interlayer coupling is weak.Keywords
All Related Versions
- Version 1, 2007-05-09, ArXiv
- Published version: Nature Physics, 3 (9), 623.
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