Transport measurements in twisted bilayer graphene: Electron-phonon coupling and Landau level crossing

TL;DR

This study explores electron-phonon interactions and Landau level crossings in twisted bilayer graphene, revealing temperature-dependent resistivity behavior, Landau level crossings only at the Dirac point, and key band structure parameters.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the temperature dependence of resistivity, Landau level behavior, and key electronic parameters in small-twist-angle twisted bilayer graphene.

Findings

Resistivity difference follows a T^β dependence with a W-shaped β(n) profile.

Landau level crossings observed only at the main Dirac point, not near the superlattice gap.

Measured Fermi velocity, interlayer coupling, VHS energy, and gap size.

Abstract

We investigate electronic transport in twisted bilayer graphene (tBLG) under variable temperatures ($T$), carrier densities ($n$), and transverse magnetic fields, focusing on samples with small-twist-angles ($\theta$). These samples show prominent signatures associated with the van Hove singularities (VHSs) and superlattice-induced mini-gaps (SMGs). Temperature-dependent field effect measurement shows that the difference between temperature-dependent resistivity and residual resistivity, $\rho_{xx}(n,T) - \rho_{0}(n)$, follows $~T^\beta$ for $n$ between the main Dirac point (DP) and SMG. The evolution of the temperature exponent $\beta$ with $n$ exhibits a W-shaped dependence, with minima of $\beta$ ~0.9 near the VHSs and maxima of $\beta$ ~1.7 toward the SMGs. This W-shaped behavior can be qualitatively understood with a theoretical picture that considers both the Fermi surface smearing near the VHSs and flexural-acoustic phonon scattering. In the quantum Hall regime, we observe only Landau level crossings in the massless Dirac spectrum originating from the main DP but not in the parabolic band near the SMG. Such crossings enable the measurement of an enhanced interlayer dielectric constant, attributed to a reduced Fermi velocity. Moreover, we measure the Fermi velocity, interlayer coupling strength, VHS energy relative to the DP, and gap size of SMG, four important parameters used to describe the peculiar band structure of the small-$\theta$ tBLG.