Optical Phonons in Twisted Bilayer Graphene with Gate-Induced Asymmetric Doping

TL;DR

This study investigates how gate-induced asymmetric doping affects optical phonons in twisted bilayer graphene, revealing layer-specific phonon renormalization, interlayer screening effects, and tunable vibrational properties via Raman spectroscopy.

Contribution

It provides new insights into layer-specific phonon behavior and interlayer interactions in tBLG under asymmetric doping conditions using Raman spectroscopy.

Findings

G band splitting and intensity quenching with doping

Effective interlayer capacitance estimation at low doping

Gate-controlled modulation of phonon modes in tBLG

Abstract

Twisted bilayer graphene (tBLG) devices with ion gel gate dielectrics are studied using Raman spectroscopy in the twist angle regime where a resonantly enhanced G band can be observed. We observe prominent splitting and intensity quenching on the G Raman band when the carrier density is tuned away from charge neutrality. This G peak splitting is attributed to asymmetric charge doping in the two graphene layers, which reveals individual phonon self-energy renormalization of the two weakly-coupled layers of graphene. We estimate the effective interlayer capacitance at low doping density of tBLG using an interlayer screening model. The anomalous intensity quenching of both G peaks is ascribed to the suppression of resonant interband transitions between the two saddle points (van Hove singularities), that are displaced in the momentum space by gate-tuning. In addition, we observe a softening (hardening) of the R Raman band, a superlattice-induced phonon mode in tBLG, in electron (hole) doping. Our results demonstrate that gate modulation can be used to control the optoelectronic and vibrational properties in tBLG devices.