Metal-Insulator Transition in Graphene on Boron Nitride

Abstract

Electrons in graphene aligned with hexagonal boron nitride are modelled by Dirac fermions in a correlated random-mass landscape subject to a scalar- and vector-potential disorder. We find that the system is insulating in the commensurate phase since the average mass deviates from zero. At the transition the mean mass is vanishing and electronic conduction in a finite sample can be described by a critical percolation along zero-mass lines. In this case graphene at the Dirac point is in a critical state with the conductivity $\sqrt{3}e^2/h$. In the incommensurate phase the system behaves as a symplectic metal.