Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics 148, 151-158 (2007)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2007-00235-3

Charge density wave in graphene: Magnetic-field-induced Peierls instability

Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, Univ. Paris-Sud, CNRS, UMR 8502, 91405 Orsay, Cedex, France

Corresponding author: fuchs@lps.u-psud.fr

Abstract

We suggest that a magnetic-field-induced Peierls instability accounts for the recent experiment of Zhang et al. in which unexpected quantum Hall plateaus were observed at high magnetic fields in graphene on a substrate. This Peierls instability leads to an out-of-plane lattice distortion resulting in a charge density wave (CDW) on sublattices A and B of the graphene honeycomb lattice. We also discuss alternative microscopic scenarios proposed in the literature and leading to a similar CDW ground state in graphene.