The effects of the long range electrostatic interaction in twisted bilayer graphene are described using the Hartree-Fock approximation. The results show a significant dependence of the band widths and shapes on electron filling, and the existence of
broken symmetry phases at many densities, either valley/spin polarized, with broken sublattice symmetry, or both.
We study the symmetries of twisted trilayer graphenes band structure under various extrinsic perturbations, and analyze the role of long-range electron-electron interactions near the first magic angle. The electronic structure is modified by these in
teractions in a similar way to twisted bilayer graphene. We analyze electron pairing due to long-wavelength charge fluctuations, which are coupled among themselves via the Coulomb interaction and additionally mediated by longitudinal acoustic phonons. We find superconducting phases with either spin singlet/valley triplet or spin triplet/valley singlet symmetry, with critical temperatures of up to a few Kelvin for realistic choices of parameters.
Angle disorder is an intrinsic feature of twisted bilayer graphene and other moire materials. Here, we discuss electron transport in twisted bilayer graphene in the presence of angle disorder. We compute the local density of states and the Landauer-B
uttiker transmission through an angle disorder barrier of width comparable to the moire period, using a decimation technique based on a real space description. We find that barriers which separate regions where the width of the bands differ by 50% or more lead to a minor suppression of the transmission, and that the transmission is close to one for normal incidence, which is reminiscent of Klein tunneling. These results suggest that transport in twisted bilayer graphene is weakly affected by twist angle disorder.
Despite the interest raised by graphene and 2D materials, their mechanical and acoustic properties are still highly debated. Harmonic theory predicts a quadratic dispersion for the flexural acoustic mode. Such a quadratic dispersion leads to divergin
g atomic fluctuations and a constant linewidth of in-plane acoustic phonon modes at small momentum, which implies that graphene cannot propagate sound waves. Many works based on membrane theory questioned the robustness of the quadratic dispersion, arguing that the anharmonic phonon-phonon interaction linearizes it, which implies a divergent bending rigidity (stiffness) in the long wavelength limit. However, these works are based on effective low-energy models that explicitly break the rotational invariance. Here we show that rotational symmetry protects the quadratic flexural dispersion against phonon-phonon interaction, and that the bending stiffness of graphene is unaffected by temperature and quantum fluctuations. Nevertheless, our non-perturbative anharmonic calculations predict that sound propagation coexists with such a quadratic dispersion. Since our conclusions are universal properties of membranes, they apply not just to graphene, but to all 2D materials.
The effect of an hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) layer close aligned with twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) is studied. At sufficiently low angles between twisted bilayer graphene and hBN, $theta_{hBN} lesssim 2^circ$, the graphene electronic structure is
strongly disturbed. The width of the low energy peak in the density of states changes from $W sim 5 - 10$ meV for a decoupled system to $sim 20 - 30$ meV. Spikes in the density of states due to van Hove singularities are smoothed out. We find that for a realistic combination of the twist angle in the TBG and the twist angle between the hBN and the graphene layer the system can be described using a single moire unit cell.
The occurrence of superconducting and insulating phases is well-established in twisted graphene bilayers, and they have also been reported in other arrangements of graphene layers. We investigate three such arrangements: untwisted AB bilayer graphene
on an hBN substrate, two graphene bilayers twisted with respect to each other, and a single ABC stacked graphene trilayer on an hBN substrate. Narrow bands with different topology occur in all cases, producing a high density of states which enhances the role of interactions. We investigate the effect of the long range Coulomb interaction, treated within the self consistent Hartree-Fock approximation. We find that the on-site part of the Fock potential strongly modifies the band structure at charge neutrality. The Hartree part does not significantly modify the shape and width of the bands in the three cases considered here, in contrast to the effect that such a potential has in twisted bilayer graphene.
Time-resolved spectroscopies using intense THz pulses appear as a promising tool to address collective electronic excitations in condensed matter. In particular recent experiments showed the possibility to selectively excite collective modes emerging
across a phase transition, as it is the case for superconducting and charge-density-wave (CDW) systems. One possible signature of these excitations is the emergence of coherent oscillations of the differential probe field in pump-probe protocols. While the analogy with the case of phonon modes suggests that the basic underlying mechanism should be a sum-frequency stimulated Raman process, a general theoretical scheme able to describe the experiments and to define the relevant optical quantity is still lacking. Here we provide this scheme by showing that coherent oscillations as a function of the pump-probe time delay can be linked to the convolution in the frequency domain between the squared pump field and a Raman-like non-linear optical kernel. This approach is applied and discussed in few paradigmatic examples: ordinary phonons in an insulator, and collective charge and Higgs fluctuations across a superconducting and a CDW transition. Our results not only account very well for the existing experimental data in a wide variety of systems, but they also offer an useful perspective to design future experiments in emerging materials.
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 s
plitting 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 band structure 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. The sensitivity of the band structure to screening by the environment may open new ways of manipulating the system.
We analyze the effect of twists on the electronic structure of configurations of infinite stacks of graphene layers. We focus on three different cases: an infinite stack where each layer is rotated with respect to the previous one by a fixed angle, t
wo pieces of semi-infinite graphite rotated with respect to each other, and finally a single layer of graphene rotated with respect to a graphite surface. In all three cases we find a rich structure, with sharp resonances and flat bands for small twist angles. The method used can be easily generalized to more complex arrangements and stacking sequences.
Despite being usually considered two competing phenomena, charge-density-wave and superconductivity coexist in few systems, the most emblematic one being the transition metal dichalcogenide 2H-NbSe$_2$. This unusual condition is responsible for speci
fic Raman signatures across the two phase transitions in this compound. While the appearance of a soft phonon mode is a well-established fingerprint of the charge-density-wave order, the nature of the sharp sub-gap mode emerging below the superconducting temperature is still under debate. In this work we use the external pressure as a knob to unveil the delicate interplay between the two orders, and consequently the nature of the superconducting mode. Thanks to an advanced extreme-conditions Raman technique we are able to follow the pressure evolution and the simultaneous collapse of the two intertwined charge density wave and superconducting modes. The comparison with microscopic calculations in a model system supports the Higgs-type nature of the superconducting mode and suggests that charge-density-wave and superconductivity in 2H-NbSe$_2$ involve mutual electronic degrees of freedom. These findings fill knowledge gap on the electronic mechanisms at play in transition metal dichalcogenides, a crucial step to fully exploit their properties in few-layers systems optimized for devices applications.
