Simultaneous nanoscale imaging of local conductivity and chemical potential in a quantum Hall isospin ferromagnet
Quantum Hall isospin ferromagnetism in multilayer graphene offers a versatile playground for exploring flat band correlated physics, driven by the intricate coupling of spin, valley, orbital, and layer degrees of freedom. However, a nanoscale probe capable of simultaneously mapping local conductivity and chemical potential in these exotic phases has yet to be realized. Here, we introduce scanning conductivity and chemical potential microscopy (SCCM), a technique integrating scanning microwave impedance microscopy and Kelvin probe force microscopy. We demonstrate SCCM by probing the quantum Hall states and many-body Landau level energy spectrum in bilayer graphene. Applied to marginally twisted double bilayer graphene, SCCM then reveals a cascade of quantum Hall isospin ferromagnetic states with unexpected re-emergence behaviors. Significantly, experimental many-body Landau level energy spectrum further uncovers the intricate connections of these complex phenomena to inter-subband Landau level crossings and Landau level single-particle wavefunctions. These insights enable the construction of a comprehensive quantum Hall phase diagram. Our results demonstrate SCCM's capability in decoding complex quantum phenomena, establishing it as a versatile nanoscale probe for electron correlation and topology.
Authors
- Shiyu Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8771-5273)
- Shuigang Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0589-5291)
- Shixuan Du (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9323-1307)
- Zhihai Cheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4938-4490)
- A. K. Geǐm (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2861-8331)
- Fengcheng Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1185-0073)
- Hu J
- Bohao Li
- Yunhao Wang
- Chengmin Shen
Institutions
- Wuhan University of Technology (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- University of Manchester (GB)
- Westlake University (CN)
- Wuhan University (CN)
- FZU ‒ Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (CZ)
- Institute of Physics (CN)
- National Laboratory for Superconductivity (CN)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Renmin University of China (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2026-06-25
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-74915-y
- Primary Topic
- Graphene research and applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Beijing Nova Program
- National Key Research and Development Program of China