$\sigma_h$ symmetry and electron-phonon interaction in two-dimensional crystalline systems

TL;DR

This paper explores how the symmetry property $\sigma_h$ in 2D materials influences electron-phonon interactions, showing that out-of-plane phonons only couple in structures where atoms are not confined to the symmetric plane.

Contribution

It clarifies the conditions under which out-of-plane phonons couple to electrons in 2D materials, extending understanding beyond graphene to other layered crystals.

Findings

In $\sigma_h$ symmetric layers like graphene, out-of-plane phonons do not couple to electrons.

In non-$\sigma_h$ symmetric 2D crystals, certain flexural phonons do couple to electrons.

Numerical and analytical methods confirm the symmetry-dependent coupling behavior.

Abstract

The coupling of electrons and phonons is governed wisely by the symmetry properties of the crystal structures. In particular, for two-dimensional (2D) systems, it has been suggested that the electrons do not couple to phonons with pure out-of-plane distortion, as long as there is a $\sigma_h$ symmetry. We show that such a statement is correct when constituents of the unit-cell layer are only located in the $\sigma_h$ symmetric plane; a prominent example of such a system is graphene. For those 2D crystals in which atoms are vertically located away from the horizontal symmetric plane (e.g., 1H transition metal dichalcogenides), acoustic flexural modes do not couple to the electrons up to linear order, while optical flexural phonons, which preserve $\sigma_h$ symmetry, do couple with the electrons. Our conclusions are supported by an analytic argument together with numerical calculations using density functional perturbation theory.