Robust Quantum Oscillation of Dirac Fermions in a Single-Defect Resonant Transistor

Abstract

The massless nature of Dirac Fermions produces large energy gaps between Landau levels (LLs), which is promising for topological devices. While the energy gap between the zeroth and first LLs reaches 36 meV in a magnetic field of 1 T in graphene, exploiting the quantum Hall effect at room temperature requires large magnetic fields (∼30 T) to overcome the energy level broadening induced by charge inhomogeneities in the device. Here, we report a way to use the robust quantum oscillations of Dirac Fermions in a single-defect resonant transistor, which is based on local tunneling through a thin (∼1.4 nm) hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) between lattice-orientation-aligned graphene layers. A single point defect in the h-BN, selected by the orientation-tuned graphene layers, probes local LLs in its proximity, minimizing the energy broadening of the LLs by charge inhomogeneity at a moderate magnetic field and ambient conditions. Thus, the resonant tunneling between lattice-orientation-aligned graphene layers highlights the potential to spectroscopically locate the atomic defects in the h-BN, which contributes to the study on electrically tunable single photon source via defect states in h-BN.