Electron–K-phonon interaction in twisted bilayer graphene

We develop an analytic theory to describe the interaction between electrons and K phonons and study its influence on superconductivity in the bare bands of twisted bilayer graphene (TBG). We find that, due to symmetry and the two-center approximation, only one optical K phonon (∼160meV) of graphene...

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Main Authors: Liu, C-X, Chen, Y, Yazdani, A, Bernevig, BA
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: American Physical Society 2024
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author Liu, C-X
Chen, Y
Yazdani, A
Bernevig, BA
author_facet Liu, C-X
Chen, Y
Yazdani, A
Bernevig, BA
author_sort Liu, C-X
collection OXFORD
description We develop an analytic theory to describe the interaction between electrons and K phonons and study its influence on superconductivity in the bare bands of twisted bilayer graphene (TBG). We find that, due to symmetry and the two-center approximation, only one optical K phonon (∼160meV) of graphene is responsible for the intervalley electron-phonon interaction. This phonon has recently been found in angular-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to be responsible for replicas of the TBG flat bands. By projecting the interaction to the TBG flat bands, we perform the full symmetry analysis of the phonon-mediated attractive interaction and pairing channels in the Chern basis, and show that several channels are guaranteed to have gapless order parameters. From the linearized gap equations, we find that the highest Tc pairing induced by this phonon is a singlet gapped s-wave inter-Chern-band order parameter, followed closely by a gapless nematic d-wave intra-Chern-band order parameter. We justify these results analytically, using the topological heavy-fermion mapping of TBG which has allowed us to obtain an analytic form of a phonon-mediated attractive interaction and to analytically solve the linearized and T=0 gap equations. For the intra-Chern-band channel, the nematic state with nodes is shown to be stabilized in the chiral flat-band limit. While the flat-band Coulomb interaction can be screened sufficiently enough - around the Van Hove singularities - to allow for electron-phonon based superconductivity, it is unlikely that this effect can be maintained in the lower density of states excitation bands around the correlated insulator states.
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spelling oxford-uuid:315e61bd-6451-4baf-b5d8-bb1a3a29b3c52024-11-07T13:49:28ZElectron–K-phonon interaction in twisted bilayer grapheneJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:315e61bd-6451-4baf-b5d8-bb1a3a29b3c5EnglishSymplectic ElementsAmerican Physical Society2024Liu, C-XChen, YYazdani, ABernevig, BAWe develop an analytic theory to describe the interaction between electrons and K phonons and study its influence on superconductivity in the bare bands of twisted bilayer graphene (TBG). We find that, due to symmetry and the two-center approximation, only one optical K phonon (∼160meV) of graphene is responsible for the intervalley electron-phonon interaction. This phonon has recently been found in angular-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to be responsible for replicas of the TBG flat bands. By projecting the interaction to the TBG flat bands, we perform the full symmetry analysis of the phonon-mediated attractive interaction and pairing channels in the Chern basis, and show that several channels are guaranteed to have gapless order parameters. From the linearized gap equations, we find that the highest Tc pairing induced by this phonon is a singlet gapped s-wave inter-Chern-band order parameter, followed closely by a gapless nematic d-wave intra-Chern-band order parameter. We justify these results analytically, using the topological heavy-fermion mapping of TBG which has allowed us to obtain an analytic form of a phonon-mediated attractive interaction and to analytically solve the linearized and T=0 gap equations. For the intra-Chern-band channel, the nematic state with nodes is shown to be stabilized in the chiral flat-band limit. While the flat-band Coulomb interaction can be screened sufficiently enough - around the Van Hove singularities - to allow for electron-phonon based superconductivity, it is unlikely that this effect can be maintained in the lower density of states excitation bands around the correlated insulator states.
spellingShingle Liu, C-X
Chen, Y
Yazdani, A
Bernevig, BA
Electron–K-phonon interaction in twisted bilayer graphene
title Electron–K-phonon interaction in twisted bilayer graphene
title_full Electron–K-phonon interaction in twisted bilayer graphene
title_fullStr Electron–K-phonon interaction in twisted bilayer graphene
title_full_unstemmed Electron–K-phonon interaction in twisted bilayer graphene
title_short Electron–K-phonon interaction in twisted bilayer graphene
title_sort electron k phonon interaction in twisted bilayer graphene
work_keys_str_mv AT liucx electronkphononinteractionintwistedbilayergraphene
AT cheny electronkphononinteractionintwistedbilayergraphene
AT yazdania electronkphononinteractionintwistedbilayergraphene
AT bernevigba electronkphononinteractionintwistedbilayergraphene