Two phase transitions induced by a magnetic field in graphite

Abstract

Different instabilities have been speculated for a three-dimensional electron gas confined to its lowest Landau level. The phase transition induced in graphite by a strong magnetic field, and believed to be a Charge Density Wave (CDW), is the only experimentally established case of such instabilities. Studying the magnetoresistance in graphite for the first time up to 80 T, we find that the magnetic field induces two successive phase transitions, consisting of two distinct ordered states each restricted to a finite field window. In both states, an energy gap opens up in the out-of-plane conductivity and coexists with an unexpected in-plane metallicity for a fully gap bulk system. Such peculiar metallicity may arise as a consequence of edge-state transport expected to develop in presence of a bulk gap.