Electronic Structure of Multilayer Graphene with Arbitrary Stackings

TL;DR

This paper provides an analytical study of the electronic band structures in multilayer graphene with arbitrary stacking, revealing how stacking geometry influences low-energy dispersions and flat band formation, with implications for superconductivity research.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analytical framework for understanding the electronic structures of arbitrarily stacked multilayer graphene, including flat band engineering possibilities.

Findings

Low energy band dispersions can be derived from isolated sub-stacks.

Analytical solutions for zero eigenvalue momenta in AA stacking are generalized.

Interplay of stacking types enables flat band engineering.

Abstract

Stacking geometry in multilayer graphene (MLG) provides an interesting degree of freedom to engineer its electronic structure near the Fermi level, wherein the linear bands in single layer graphene could retain or evolve into parabolic or flat bands. Using a tight-binding model, we carried out a detailed analytical analysis of the electronic band structures for arbitrarily stacked MLGs. We show that their low energy band dispersions near the Fermi level may be deduced from its substacks in isolation. The analytical solutions of the momenta with zero eigenvalue for an AA stacking allows us to generalize the results of the zero energy momenta for arbitrarily stacked MLGs. Moreover, we find that an interplay of parallel and rhombohedral stackings allows for flat band engineering and enhancement in arbitrarily stacked MLGs. The existence of flat bands in MLGs might offer another interesting platform for exploring the superconductivity in graphene systems beyond the twisted bilayer graphene.