Tunable transmission of quantum Hall edge channels with full degeneracy lifting in split-gated graphene devices (1605.08673v3)

Abstract: Charge carriers in the quantum Hall regime propagate via one-dimensional conducting channels that form along the edges of a two-dimensional electron gas. Controlling their transmission through a gate-tunable constriction, also called quantum point contact (QPC), is fundamental for many coherent transport experiments. However, in graphene, tailoring a QPC with electrostatic gates remains challenging due to the formation of p-n junctions below gate electrodes along which electron and hole edge channels co-propagate and mix, short-circuiting the constriction. Here we show that this electron-hole mixing is drastically reduced in high mobility boron-nitride/graphene/boron-nitride van-der-Waals heterostructures thanks to the full degeneracy lifting of the Landau levels, enabling QPC operation with full channel pinch-off. We demonstrate gate-tunable selective transmission of quantum Hall edge channels through the QPC, both in the integer and the fractional quantum Hall regimes. This gate-control of edge channel propagation in graphene van-der-Waals heterostructures opens the door to quantum Hall interferometry and electron quantum optics experiments in the integer and fractional quantum Hall regimes of graphene.