Proximity screening greatly enhances electronic quality of graphene

Daniil Domaretskiy (), Zefei Wu (), Nguyen Van Huy, Ned Hayward, Ian Babich, Xiao Li, Ekaterina Nguyen, Julien Barrier, Kornelia Indykiewicz, Wendong Wang, Roman V. Gorbachev, Na Xin, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Lee Hague, Vladimir I. Fal’ko, Irina V. Grigorieva, Leonid A. Ponomarenko, Alexey I. Berdyugin () and Andre K. Geim ()
Additional contact information
Daniil Domaretskiy: University of Manchester
Zefei Wu: University of Manchester
Nguyen Van Huy: University of Manchester
Ned Hayward: University of Manchester
Ian Babich: National University of Singapore
Xiao Li: University of Manchester
Ekaterina Nguyen: University of Manchester
Julien Barrier: University of Manchester
Kornelia Indykiewicz: University of Manchester
Wendong Wang: University of Manchester
Roman V. Gorbachev: University of Manchester
Na Xin: University of Manchester
Kenji Watanabe: National Institute for Materials Science
Takashi Taniguchi: National Institute for Materials Science
Lee Hague: University of Manchester
Vladimir I. Fal’ko: University of Manchester
Irina V. Grigorieva: University of Manchester
Leonid A. Ponomarenko: University of Lancaster
Alexey I. Berdyugin: National University of Singapore
Andre K. Geim: University of Manchester

Nature, 2025, vol. 644, issue 8077, 646-651

Abstract: Abstract The electronic quality of two-dimensional systems is crucial when exploring quantum transport phenomena. In semiconductor heterostructures, decades of optimization have yielded record-quality two-dimensional gases with transport and quantum mobilities reaching close to 108 and 106 cm2 V−1 s−1, respectively1–10. Although the quality of graphene devices has also been improving, it remains comparatively lower11–17. Here we report a transformative improvement in the electronic quality of graphene by employing graphite gates placed in its immediate proximity, at 1 nm separation. The resulting screening reduces charge inhomogeneity by two orders of magnitude, bringing it down to a few 107 cm−2 and limiting potential fluctuations to less than 1 meV. Quantum mobilities reach 107 cm2 V−1 s−1, surpassing those in the highest-quality semiconductor heterostructures by an order of magnitude, and the transport mobilities match their record9,10. This quality enables Shubnikov–de Haas oscillations in fields as low as 1 mT and quantum Hall plateaux below 5 mT. Although proximity screening predictably suppresses electron–electron interactions, fractional quantum Hall states remain observable with their energy gaps reduced only by a factor of 3–5 compared with unscreened devices, demonstrating that many-body phenomena at spatial scales shorter than 10 nm remain robust. Our results offer a reliable route to improving electronic quality in graphene and other two-dimensional systems, which should facilitate the exploration of new physics previously obscured by disorder.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09386-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:644:y:2025:i:8077:d:10.1038_s41586-025-09386-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09386-0

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().