Superlattice-Induced Insulating States and Valley-Protected Orbits in Twisted Bilayer Graphene

2016/07/18 by Y. Cao, Yuan Cao, J. Y. Luo +15 · 9 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #2D Materials and Applications #Bilayer graphene #Condensed matter physics #Electron #Electronic band structure #Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope #Fermi level #Graphene #Graphene research and applications #Heterojunction #Materials science #Physics #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum mechanics #Superlattice #cond-mat.mes-hall

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.117.116804

published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 116804 (2016) · 5 pages, 4 figures

arxiv created 2016/07/18 · openalex publication_date 2016/09/07 · arxiv updated 2016/09/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Twisted bilayer graphene (TBLG) is one of the simplest van der Waals heterostructures, yet it yields a complex electronic system with intricate interplay between moiré physics and interlayer hybridization effects. We report on electronic transport measurements of high mobility small angle TBLG devices showing clear evidence for insulating states at the superlattice band edges, with thermal activation gaps several times larger than theoretically predicted. Moreover, Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations and tight binding calculations reveal that the band structure consists of two intersecting Fermi contours whose crossing points are effectively unhybridized. We attribute this to exponentially suppressed interlayer hopping amplitudes for momentum transfers larger than the moiré wave vector.

Citations

• Continuum model of the twisted graphene bilayer
• Gate-induced insulating state in bilayer graphene devices
• Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple
• Topologically protected zero modes in twisted bilayer graphene
• Moire bands in twisted double-layer graphene
• Single-Layer Behavior and Its Breakdown in Twisted Graphene Layers

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• Transport Through a Network of Topological Channels in Twisted Bilayer Graphene
• Non-Abelian Dirac node braiding and near-degeneracy of correlated phases at odd integer filling in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene
• Twisted Bilayer Graphene: Low‐Energy Physics, Electronic and Optical Properties
• Dirac Points, Spinons, and Spin Liquid in Twisted Bilayer Graphene
• Shear instability in twisted bilayer graphene
• Misorientation-Controlled Cross-Plane Thermoelectricity in Twisted Bilayer Graphene