Chiral correlation of drag currents inducing optical activity of twisted bilayer graphene

TL;DR

This paper investigates how chiral electron correlations in twisted bilayer graphene lead to optical activity through drag currents, revealing unique quantum transport properties and a specific conductivity behavior.

Contribution

It introduces a continuum model to analyze chiral electron states and their contribution to optical activity via drag correlations in twisted bilayer graphene.

Findings

Drag term of optical conductivity tensor due to chiral correlations

Quantum conductivity value proportional to e^2/h at Fermi energy

Analysis method for conductivity tensor components

Abstract

The mechanisms of optical activity and quantum transport of twisted bilayer graphene are studied. The formation of unique electron states in the bilayer systems is studied using an effective continuum model. Such states are shown to support the correlation of transverse motions of electrons in two graphene layers. Because of the chiral structure of the atomic lattices, the contribution of such drag correlations is incompletely cancelled, thus resulting in a drag term of the optical conductivity tensor. We show that the drag term of the conductivity is the manifestation of the spatial dispersion. We show how to analyze and calculate the components of the conductivity tensors that governs the optical activity of the systems. The DC conductivity of the twisted bilayer graphene system is also calculated. It shows the existence of a quantum conductivity value $\propto e^2/h$ at the intrinsic Fermi energy.