Recent studies have suggested that the strongly correlated flat bands
of magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene may host coexisting light and
heavy carriers. Although transport and spectroscopic measurements
have hinted at this behaviour, distinct signatures of incoherent heavy
carriers have not been reported. Here we provide evidence of this by
performing thermoelectric transport measurements of magic-angle twisted
bilayer graphene using the photo-thermoelectric effect in gate-defined
p–n junctions. At low temperatures, we observe sign-preserving,
filling-dependent oscillations of the Seebeck coefficient at non-zero integer
fillings of the moiré superlattice. This suggests the preponderance of one
carrier type even when the Fermi level is tuned through the charge neutrality
point of the correlated states. At higher temperatures, the thermoelectric
response provides evidence of strong electron correlations in the unordered,
normal state. Our observations are explained by the interplay between light,
long-lived electron states and heavy, short-lived hole excitations near the
Fermi level of the symmetry-broken ground states. These findings are in
qualitative agreement with the topological heavy fermion model.
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Recent studies have suggested that the strongly correlated flat bands
of magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene may host coexisting light and
heavy carriers. Although transport and spectroscopic measurements
have hinted at this behaviour, distinct signatures of incoherent heavy
carriers have not been reported. Here we provide evidence of this by
performing thermoelectric transport measurements of magic-angle twisted
bilayer graphene using the photo-thermoelectric effect in gate-defined
p–n...
»