Layer-selective and magnetic-field-enhanced transport of topological kink states in rhombohedral multilayer graphene

Abstract

Topological valley kink states (VKSs), which are quantum valley Hall states emerging at the interfaces between adjacent domains with opposite valley Chern numbers, have attracted considerable interest in graphene-based systems. In this work, we investigate the quantum transport of VKSs in ABC-stacked rhombohedral multilayer graphene in the presence of Anderson disorder and a perpendicular magnetic field. Two prominent transport characteristics are revealed. First, in the absence of a magnetic field, the kink states exhibit strong layer polarization, with their wave functions predominantly localized and equally distributed on the outermost top and bottom layers. As a result, their transport properties are highly sensitive to the layer-selective disorder distribution. Second, under a perpendicular magnetic field, the layer-symmetric spatial distribution of VKSs is broken, leading to a significant reduction in the wave-function overlap between counter-propagating VKSs from opposite valleys. Consequently, intervalley scattering is suppressed, and the transmission of VKSs through disordered regions is substantially enhanced. Our results provide new insights into multichannel topological valley transport in rhombohedral multilayer graphene and demonstrates disorder-engineering and magnetic fields as effective approaches for manipulating the propagation of VKSs.