Cooling low-dimensional electron systems into the microkelvin regime.

Two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) with high mobility, engineered in semiconductor heterostructures host a variety of ordered phases arising from strong correlations, which emerge at sufficiently low temperatures. The 2DEG can be further controlled by surface gates to create quasi-one dimensional systems, with potential spintronic applications. Here we address the long-standing challenge of cooling such electrons to below 1 mK, potentially important for identification of topological phases and spin correlated states. The 2DEG device was immersed in liquid 3He, cooled by the nuclear adiabatic demagnetization of copper. The temperature of the 2D electrons was inferred from the electronic noise in a gold wire, connected to the 2DEG by a metallic ohmic contact. With effective screening and filtering, we demonstrate a temperature of 0.9 ± 0.1 mK, with scope for significant further improvement. This platform is a key technological step, paving the way to observing new quantum phenomena, and developing new generations of nanoelectronic devices exploiting correlated electron states.

Imaging the Zigzag Wigner Crystal in Confinement-Tunable Quantum Wires.

The existence of Wigner crystallization, one of the most significant hallmarks of strong electron correlations, has to date only been definitively observed in two-dimensional systems. In one-dimensional (1D) quantum wires Wigner crystals correspond to regularly spaced electrons; however, weakening the confinement and allowing the electrons to relax in a second dimension is predicted to lead to the formation of a new ground state constituting a zigzag chain with nontrivial spin phases and properties. Here we report the observation of such zigzag Wigner crystals by use of on-chip charge and spin detectors employing electron focusing to image the charge density distribution and probe their spin properties. This experiment demonstrates both the structural and spin phase diagrams of the 1D Wigner crystallization. The existence of zigzag spin chains and phases which can be electrically controlled in semiconductor systems may open avenues for experimental studies of Wigner crystals and their technological applications in spintronics and quantum information.

Large single crystals of graphene on melted copper using chemical vapor deposition.

A simple method is presented for synthesizing large single crystal graphene domains on melted copper using atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (CVD). This is achieved by performing the reaction above the melting point of copper (1090 °C) and using a molybdenum or tungsten support to prevent balling of the copper from dewetting. By controlling the amount of hydrogen during growth, individual single crystal domains of monolayer graphene greater than 200 µm are produced within a continuous film. Stopping growth before a complete film is formed reveals individual hexagonal domains of graphene that are epitaxially aligned in their orientation. Angular resolved photoemission spectroscopy is used to show that the graphene grown on copper exhibits a linear dispersion relationship and no sign of doping. HRTEM and electron diffraction reveal a uniform high quality crystalline atomic structure of monolayer graphene.