Interference effects in polarization controlled Rayleigh scattering in twisted bilayer graphene

TL;DR

This study models polarization-controlled Rayleigh scattering in twisted bilayer graphene, revealing significant enhancement and interference effects at small twist angles due to structural and electronic factors.

Contribution

It introduces a refined continuum model to analyze polarization effects in Rayleigh scattering of twisted bilayer graphene, highlighting strong interference and enhancement phenomena.

Findings

Rayleigh intensity is strongly enhanced at small twist angles.

Interference effects cause complex polarization-dependent behavior.

Corrugation effects significantly increase polarization ratio at small angles.

Abstract

We calculate the \tco{polarization}-controlled Rayleigh scattering response of twisted bilayer graphene (tBLG) based on the continuum electronic band model developed by Bistritzer and MacDonald while considering its refinements which address the effects of structural corrugation, doping-dependent Hartree interactions and particle-hole asymmetry. The dominant wave vectors for the Rayleigh scattering process emanate from various regions of the Moir\'e Brillouin zone (MBZ) in contrast to single-layer graphene (SLG) and AB-stacked bilayer graphene (AB-BLG), where the dominant contributions always stem from the vicinity of the $\bm{K}$ point for optical laser energies and below. Compared to SLG, the integrated Rayleigh intensity is strongly enhanced for small twist angles (\emph{e.g.}, at a twist angle $ \theta = 1.2^{\circ} $, the integrated Rayleigh intensity at laser energy $ E_l=2~\si{\electronvolt} $ enhances by a factor of $\sim $ 100 for the case of parallel \tco{polarization}). While for the case of cross-\tco{polarization}, it exhibits a markedly complex \tco{behavior} suggestive of strong interference effects mediated by the optical matrix elements. We find that at small twist angles, \emph{e.g.}, $ \theta = 1.05^{\circ} $, the corrugation effects strongly enhances the ratio $ \bm{R}_A = \frac{ \text{integrated Rayleigh intensity for parallel \tco{polarization}}}{\text{integrated Rayleigh intensity for cross-\tco{polarization}}} $ by $ \sim $ $ 1300 $ times \emph{viz a viz} SLG or AB-BLG.