Cryogenic shock exfoliation for ultrahigh mobility rhombohedral graphite nanoelectronics
Ludwig Holleis, Youngjoon Choi, Canxun Zhang, Jack H. Farrell, Gabriel Bargas + 14 more
TLDR
New cryogenic shock exfoliation produces large, high-quality rhombohedral graphene for advanced nanoelectronics, enabling tunable correlated electron physics.
Key contributions
- Developed 'cryogenic shock exfoliation' for large-area rhombohedral graphene flakes.
- Achieved 90% device yield for >1300 µm² devices using novel assembly technique.
- Demonstrated uniform spin magnetism and ultrahigh mean free path (>200 µm).
- Observed size-driven crossover from Poiseuille to porous electron flow.
Why it matters
This paper overcomes a major materials bottleneck in rhombohedral graphene fabrication, which previously limited its potential. The new method enables large, high-quality devices, paving the way for integrating strongly correlated phases into 2D nanoelectronics.
Original Abstract
Rhombohedral multilayer graphene (RMG) offers a highly tunable platform for correlated electron physics, featuring field-effect control of magnetic, superconducting, and topological phases[1-24]. The promise of these materials has been held back by the limited abundance of rhombohedral stacking in natural graphite, which constrains both sample yield and useful area. Here we introduce 'cryogenic shock exfoliation' to produce large area rhombohedral graphene flakes which, combined with a low-pressure van der Waals assembly technique that preserves stacking order, enable highly uniform devices exceeding 1300 $μm^2$ with fabrication yields of 90%. Using scanning nanoSQUID-on-tip imaging, we demonstrate uniform spin magnetism over the full central 10 times 10 $μm^2$ area of our devices. Transverse magnetic focusing reveals a disorder mean free path exceeding 200 $μm$ at low temperatures. Within the flat surface bands of RMG[20], we observe a size-driven crossover from Poiseuille to porous electron flow in the intermediate-temperature regime of strong electron-electron hydrodynamics[16, 25], providing a further signature of ultrahigh device quality. Our approach overcomes a key materials bottleneck in the fabrication of mesoscopic rhombohedral graphene devices, paving the way for incorporating strongly correlated phases into two-dimensional nanoelectronics.
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