SignificanceFor small twist angles, bilayer graphene forms long-wavelength Moiré patterns. For specific, so-called magic, angles of the order of 1 degree, very narrow bands have been seen that lead to superconductivity. The underlying mechanisms have since been discussed in a variety of theoretical approaches. We show that the modulation of the charge density significantly modifies the electronic structure. These changes can make an important contribution to superconductivity through electron-assisted hopping.
When two-dimensional crystals are brought into close proximity, their interaction results in reconstruction of electronic spectrum and crystal structure. Such reconstruction strongly depends on the twist angle between the crystals, which has received growing attention due to interesting electronic and optical properties that arise in graphene and transitional metal dichalcogenides. Here we study two insulating crystals of hexagonal boron nitride stacked at small twist angle. Using electrostatic force microscopy, we observe ferroelectric-like domains arranged in triangular superlattices with a large surface potential. The observation is attributed to interfacial elastic deformations that result in out-of-plane dipoles formed by pairs of boron and nitrogen atoms belonging to opposite interfacial surfaces. This creates a bilayer-thick ferroelectric with oppositely polarized (BN and NB) dipoles in neighbouring domains, in agreement with our modeling. These findings open up possibilities for designing van der Waals heterostructures and offer an alternative probe to study moiré-superlattice electrostatic potentials.
We analyze a description of twisted graphene bilayers, that incorporates the deformation of the layers using state of the art interlayer atomic potentials, and a modification of the hopping parameters between layers in the light of the classic Slonczewski-Weiss-McClure parametrisation. We obtain narrow bands in all cases, but that their nature can be rather different. We will show how to describe the results by equivalent continuum models. Even though such models can be constructed, their complexity can vary, requiring many coupling parameters to be included, and the full in-layer dispersion must be taken into account. The combination of all these effects will have a large impact on the wave functions of the flat bands, and that modifications in details of the underlying models can lead to significant changes. A robust conclusion is that the natural strength of the interlayer couplings is higher than usually assumed, leading to shifts in the definition of the magic angles. The structure at the edges of the narrow bands, at the Γ point of the Brillouin Zone is also strongly dependent on parametrization. As a result, the existence, and size, of band gaps between the flat bands and the neighboring ones are changed. Hence, the definition of Wannier functions, and descriptions based on local interactions are strongly dependent on the description of the model at the atomic scale. * Francisco. Guinea@imdea.org † Niels.Walet@manchester.ac.uk; https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/niels.walet.html AA AB FIG. 1. Examples of a graphene bilayer in (approximate) AA and AB alignment. arXiv:1903.00364v2 [cond-mat.str-el]
The emergence of flat bands in twisted bilayer graphene leads to an enhancement of interaction effects, and thus to insulating and superconducting phases at low temperatures, even though the exact mechanism is still widely debated. The position and splitting of the flat bands is also very sensitive to the residual interactions. Moreover, the low energy bands of twisted graphene bilayers show a rich structure of singularities in the density of states, van Hove singularities, which can enhance further the role of interactions. We study the effect of the long-range interactions on the bandwidth and the van Hove singularities of the low energy bands of twisted graphene bilayers. Reasonable values of the long-range electrostatic interaction lead to a band dispersion with a significant dependence on the filling. The change of the shape and position of the bands with electronic filling implies that the van Hove singularities remain close to the Fermi energy for a broad range of fillings. This result can be described as an effective pinning of the Fermi energy at the singularity. arXiv:1906.10570v2 [cond-mat.str-el]
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