Observation of unconventional splitting of Landau levels in strained graphene

In strained graphene, lattice deformation can create pseudomagnetic fields affecting the behavior of massless Dirac fermions and result in zero-field Landau level-like quantization. In the presence of an external magnetic field, valley-polarized Landau levels are predicted to be observed because the strain-induced pseudomagnetic fields are of opposite directions in the K and K′ valleys of graphene. However, an experimental verification of such a unique valley-polarized Landau quantization has not been reported so far. Here, we present experimental spectroscopic measurements in strained graphene on Rh foil by scanning tunneling microscopy. We directly observed the splitting of the Landau level in the quantum Hall regime and we interpreted the experimental result as the valley-polarized Landau level induced by the coexistence of the pseudomagnetic fields and external magnetic fields. The observed result paves the way to exploit novel electronic properties in graphene through the combination of the spatially varying strain (or the pseudomagnetic fields) and the external magnetic fields.