Impact of vacancies on twisted bilayer graphene quantum point contacts

TL;DR

This study investigates how vacancies affect electronic transport in twisted bilayer graphene quantum point contacts, revealing that vacancies can restore electron-hole symmetry and significantly alter conductance quantization near the magic angle.

Contribution

It provides a detailed numerical analysis of vacancy effects on conductance quantization and electron-hole symmetry in twisted bilayer graphene quantum point contacts.

Findings

Quantized conductance plateaus are observed at large twist angles in defect-free samples.

Vacancies restore electron-hole symmetry by reducing interlayer coupling.

Conductance quantization diminishes near the magic angle due to increased vacancy effects.

Abstract

We carry out an extensive numerical study of low-temperature electronic transport in quantum point contacts based on twisted bilayer graphene. Assuming ballistic electron dynamics, quantized plateaus in the conductance are observed in defect-free samples when the twisting angle is large enough. However, plateaus are smeared out and hardly noticeable on decreasing the angle. Close to the magic angle, the conductance around the charge neutrality point drops significantly and the quantization steps visible at higher angles are no longer appreciable. Furthermore, we consider the effects of a random distribution of vacancies on the quantum point contact. Whereas the electron-hole symmetry is broken in pristine samples, we find that this symmetry is restored upon increasing the concentration of vacancies. We explain this effect by a reduction of the effective interlayer coupling due to the presence of the vacancies.