Moire miniband features in the angle-resolved photoemission spectra of graphene/hBN heterostructures

TL;DR

This paper investigates moire miniband features in ARPES spectra of graphene/hBN heterostructures, providing models to distinguish between different microscopic interactions and effects like strain and scattering.

Contribution

It introduces detailed modeling of ARPES features to identify the microscopic mechanisms in graphene/hBN heterostructures.

Findings

Identification of ARPES features linked to moire patterns

Distinction between strain effects and miniband formation

Modeling of five microscopic interaction scenarios

Abstract

We identify features in the angle-resolved photoemission spectra (ARPES) arising from the periodic pattern characteristic for graphene heterostructure with hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). For this, we model ARPES spectra and intensity maps for five microscopic models used previously to describe moire superlattice in graphene/hBN systems. We show that detailed analysis of these features can be used to pin down the microscopic mechanism of the interaction between graphene and hBN. We also analyze how the presence of a moire-periodic strain in graphene or scattering of photoemitted electrons off hBN can be distinguished from the miniband formation.