Flat Electron Bands with Bad Valley Quantum Numbers in Twisted Bi-Layer Graphene

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the energy spectrum of twisted bilayer graphene, revealing how flat bands with broken valley degeneracy emerge at magic angles due to level repulsion and specific phase conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a mechanism explaining the formation of flat bands in twisted bilayer graphene based on phase factors and level repulsion, supported by both perturbation theory and numerical calculations.

Findings

Degeneracy along the moire Brillouin zone edge is broken in flat bands.

Flat bands at magic angles arise from maximal level repulsion.

Phase factor assumption is validated in large moire unit cells.

Abstract

We compute the energy spectrum of a nearest-neighbor electron hopping model for bi-layer graphene at commensurate twist angles. Specifically, we focus on the simplest bi-layer lattices, with moire patterns that have no subcells. The electron hopping hamiltonian is analyzed in momentum space, both by degenerate perturbation theory and by exact numerical calculation. We find that the degeneracy in energy along the edge of the moire Brillouin zone due to the two valley quantum numbers is noticeably broken in the flat central bands at the magic twist angle. A mechanism for the appearance of flat central bands themselves at the magic twist angle is also revealed. It is due to maximal level repulsion. The mechanism relies on the assumption that the phase factor for the AA hamiltonian matrix element for inter-graphene-sheet hopping at the middle of the edge of the moire Brillouin zone has a phase equal to half the twist angle. This assumption is confirmed in the case of uniform AA hopping in between the two sheets of graphene, in the limit of large moire unit cells.