Flat band localization in twisted bilayer graphene nanoribbons

TL;DR

This paper investigates how edge termination types in twisted bilayer graphene nanoribbons influence flat band localization, revealing that boundary conditions significantly affect electronic properties near the magic angle.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of edge effects on flat band localization in TBG nanoribbons, highlighting the role of boundary conditions and moiré structure completeness.

Findings

Armchair edges suppress edge localization with incomplete moiré structures.

Zigzag edges show strong interference of edge states with moiré bands.

Flat bands in bulk are unaffected by boundary changes for wider ribbons.

Abstract

We analyze the electronic structure of twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) nanoribbons close to the magic angle. We describe a transition from an incomplete to a complete moir\'e structure. By considering zigzag and armchair edge terminations, the low-energy bands are strongly modified, and thus, the edge flat band localization is sensitive to the type of boundary. By means of a scaled tight-binding model, we calculate the band structure and find that, for an armchair configuration, an incomplete moir\'e edge suppresses the edge localization, while for a zigzag configuration, we find a strong interference of the edge states with the moir\'e bands. In particular, for the armchair termination, we observe a competition between the ribbon periodicity and the graphene monolayers, which we describe with a potential well toy model. Furthermore, for ribbons with widths of multiple moir\'e cells, the flat bands of the moir\'es in the bulk are unperturbed as we change the borders. These results are explained in terms of the strong electronic localization, nearly Gaussian, in the AA stacking regions, as confirmed by an inverse participation ratio analysis. Our results demonstrate that the electronic structure of TBG nanoribbons is sensitive to the edge termination, offering an explanation for recent experimental results.