Coexisting massive and massless Dirac fermions in moiré-reconstructed bilayer graphene

We report the emergence of massless Dirac fermions in moiré-reconstructed bands of bilayer graphene (BLG) aligned with hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). Magnetotransport measurements reveal that while the primary BLG band retains a parabolic dispersion with a Berry phase of $2π$, the moiré-induced secondary bands at $n/n_0 = \pm 4$ host chiral massless quasiparticles with a Berry phase $π$ and a Fermi velocity $v_m \approx 3.6 \times 10^5 \mathrm{m s^{-1}}$. This transition from massive to massless carriers arises from topological band reconstruction driven by the hBN moiré potential. Our results demonstrate that moiré engineering in BLG/hBN offers a powerful route to tune band topology and realize coexisting Dirac and massive fermions within a single crystalline platform.

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Publication Details

Journal
Physical review. B./Physical review. B
Published
2026-01-16
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/v45r-zcvc
Primary Topic
Graphene research and applications
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Coexisting massive and massless Dirac fermions in moiré-reconstructed bilayer graphene

Takashi Taniguchi, Kenji Watanabe, Mohit Kumar Jat, Aveek Bid
Physical review. B./Physical review. B
Graphene research and applications
article

Coexisting massive and massless Dirac fermions in moiré-reconstructed bilayer graphene

Takashi Taniguchi, Kenji Watanabe, Mohit Kumar Jat, Aveek Bid
article en

Abstract

We report the emergence of massless Dirac fermions in moiré-reconstructed bands of bilayer graphene (BLG) aligned with hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). Magnetotransport measurements reveal that while the primary BLG band retains a parabolic dispersion with a Berry phase of $2π$, the moiré-induced secondary bands at $n/n_0 = \pm 4$ host chiral massless quasiparticles with a Berry phase $π$ and a Fermi velocity $v_m \approx 3.6 \times 10^5 \mathrm{m s^{-1}}$. This transition from massive to massless carriers arises from topological band reconstruction driven by the hBN moiré potential. Our results demonstrate that moiré engineering in BLG/hBN offers a powerful route to tune band topology and realize coexisting Dirac and massive fermions within a single crystalline platform.

Physical review. B./Physical review. BVol. 113(8)
National Institute for Materials Science (JP), Indian Institute of Science Bangalore (IN)
Openalex Percentile: Top 100%
Graphene research and applications
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