We analyze the phase diagram of twisted graphene bilayers near a magic angle. We consider the effect of the long range Coulomb interaction, treated within the self consistent Hartree-Fock approximation, and we study arbitrary band fillings. We find a rich phase diagram, with different broken symmetry phases, although tehy do not show necessarily a gap at the Fermi energy. There are non trivial effects of the electrostatic potential on the shape and the gaps of the bands in the broken symmetry phases. The results suggest that the non superconducting broken symmetry phases observed experimentally are induced by the long range exchange interaction.
We use the bilayer twisted Hubbard model to study the low energy electronic structure of Sr3Ir2O7. Sr3Ir2O7 is suggested as a Mott insulator and described by the bilayer twisted pseudospin-1/2 model. The bilayer twists in Sr3Ir2O7 bring the intrinsic anisotropy and the system is no longer SU(2) invariant. The anisotropy selects an easy c-axis collinear antiferromagnetic magnetic structure at low temperatures which breaks the discrete Ising symmetry. The transverse spin excitations are gapped and the longitudinal one is weakly dispersive. We implement the bond-operator mean field calculation to…
Experiments on graphene bilayers, where the top layer is rotated with respect to the one below, have displayed insulating behavior when the moiré bands are partially filled. We calculate the charge distributions in these phases, and estimate the excitation gaps.
We address the effective tight-binding Hamiltonian that describes the insulating Mott state of twisted graphene bilayers at a magic angle. In that configuration, twisted bilayers form a honeycomb superlattice of localized states, characterized by the appearance of flat bands with four-fold degeneracy. After calculating the maximally localized superlattice Wannier wavefunctions, we derive the effective spin model that describes the Mott state. We suggest that the system is an exotic ferromagnetic Mott insulator, with well defined experimental signatures.
In recent years, there have been numerous examples of twisted bilayer systems that host remarkable physical properties that are not found in their untwisted counterparts. Motivated by this, we study the properties of twisted bilayers of the Kitaev honeycomb model in the Abelian spin liquid phase. We show that for strong, short-ranged, interlayer interactions, a super-lattice of non-Abelian defects forms in the twisted bilayer system. These non-Abelian defects are wormhole-like genons that allow anyons from one layer to tunnel to the other layer. We find that when a magnetic field is applied to…
The observation of flat energy bands in transition metal dichalcogenide bilayers such as twisted WSe${}_2$ makes those materials interesting prospects for reproducing the behavior observed in graphene-based systems. We use an effective Hubbard model providing a description of twisted WSe${}_2$ to explore the presence of superconductivity, which was previously reported in experiments. Using both the variational cluster approximation and cluster dynamical mean-field theory, we predict the existence of chiral supercondictivity of type $d\pm id$ that can be tuned by the twist angle and by the appl…
We derive the general continuum model for a bilayer system of staggered-flux square lattices, with arbitrary elastic deformation in each layer. Applying this general continuum model to the case where the two layers are rigidly rotated relative to each other by a small angle, we obtain the band structure of the twisted bilayer staggered-flux square lattice. We show that this band structure exhibits a "magic continuum" in the sense that an exponential reduction of the Dirac velocity and bandwidths occurs in a large parameter regime. We show that the continuum model of the twisted bilayer system …
We apply cluster dynamical mean field theory with an exact-diagonalization impurity solver to a Hubbard model for magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene, built on the tight-binding model proposed by Kang and Vafek (2018), which applies to the magic angle $1.30^\circ$. We find that triplet superconductivity with $p+ip$ symmetry is stabilized by CDMFT, as well as a subdominant singlet $d+id$ state. A minimum of the order parameter exists close to quarter-filling and three-quarter filling, as observed in experiments.
We investigate correlated insulating states in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) by the exact diagonalization method applied to the extended Hubbard model with interaction parameters recently evaluated in the realistic effective model. Our model can handle the competing interactions among Wannier orbitals owing to their significant overlap, which is a crucial but overlooked aspect of the magic-angle TBG. We propose two candidates for the correlated insulating states: spin- and valley-ferromagnetic band insulator and the Dirac semimetallic state for two flavors with peculiar renormaliz…
The polarizability of twisted bilayer graphene, due to the combined effect of electron-hole pairs, plasmons, and acoustic phonons is analyzed. The screened Coulomb interaction allows for the for- mation of Cooper pairs and superconductivity in a significant range of twist angles and fillings. The tendency toward superconductivity is enhanced by the coupling between longitudinal phonons and electron-hole pairs. Scattering processes involving large momentum transfers, Umklapp processes, play a crucial role in the formation of Cooper pairs. The magnitude of the superconducting gap changes among t…
Twisted graphene bilayers show a complex electronic structure, further modified by interaction effects. The main features can be obtained from effective models, which make use a few phenomenological parameters. We analyze the influence of effects at the atomic scale, such as interlayer hopping and lattice relaxation, on the electronic bands. We assume that the twist angle and the size of the Moiré pattern is fixed, as it is usually the case in experiments. We obtain a strong dependence of the electronic structure on details of the models at the atomic scale. We discuss how to incorporate this …
We identify states favored by Coulomb interactions projected onto the Wannier basis of the four narrow bands of the "magic angle" twisted bilayer graphene. At the filling of two electrons/holes per moire unit cell, such interactions favor an insulating SU(4) ferromagnet. The kinetic terms select the ground state in which the two valleys with opposite spins are equally mixed, with vanishing magnetic moment per particle. We also find extended excited states, the gap to which decreases in magnetic field. An insulating stripe ferromagnetic phase is favored at one electron/hole per unit cell.
We investigate the correlation-induced Mott, magnetic, and topological phase transitions in artificial (111) bilayers of perovskite transition-metal oxides LaAuO$_3$ and SrIrO$_3$ for which the previous density-functional theory calculations predicted topological insulating states. Using the dynamical-mean-field theory with realistic band structures and Coulomb interactions, LaAuO$_3$ bilayer is shown to be far away from a Mott insulating regime, and a topological-insulating state is robust. On the other hand, SrIrO$_3$ bilayer is on the verge of an orbital-selective topological Mott transitio…
In this work the effects of impurity in various insulating phases of the twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) are studied. The well-accepted continuum model\cite{b} is employed and the local density of states (DOS) is calculated. It is found that insulating phases breaking different symmetries proposed in previous theories\cite{pa,op1,Lee_2019} are distinguishable via the number and properties of in-gap bound state peaks induced by impurities in local DOS. Insulating phases breaking the same previously proposed symmetries can be further classified by the remaining anti-unitary symmetries and disting…
We present a simple derivation of a continuum Hamiltonian for bilayer graphene with an arbitrary smooth lattice deformation -- technically in a fashion parametrized by displacement fields with small gradients. We show that this subsumes the continuum model of Bistritzer and Macdonald for twisted bilayer grapheneas well as many generalizations and extensions of it. The derivation is carried out entirely in real space.
Motivated by the recently observed insulating states in twisted bilayer graphene, we study the nature of the correlated insulating phases of the twisted bilayer graphene at commensurate filling fractions. We use the continuum model and project the Coulomb interaction onto the flat bands to study the ground states by using a Hartree-Fock approximation. In the absence of the hexagonal boron nitride substrate, the ground states are the intervalley coherence states at charge neutrality (filling $ν$ = 0, or four electrons per moiré cell) and at $ν$ = -1/4 and -1/2 (three and two electrons per cell,…
We consider magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) at filling $ν=+3$, where experiments have observed a robust quantized anomalous Hall effect. This has been attributed to the formation of a valley- and spin-polarized Chern insulating ground state that spontaneously breaks time-reversal symmetry, and is stabilized by a hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) substrate. We identify three different types of domain wall, and study their properties and energetic selection mechanisms via theoretical arguments and Hartree-Fock calculations adapted to deal with inhomogeneous moiré systems. We comment on th…
In this work, we calculate the optical response and the nonlinear Hall response of twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) in the insulating states. Different insulating states, including spin-valley polarized (SPVP) state, spin-polarized quantum Hall(SPQH) state, spin-polarized valley Hall (SPVH) state, and spin polarized Kramers-intervalley coherence (SPKIVC) state, are considered. We calculate the optical conductivity ($σ_{xx}$) of these four states and we find that the spin-valley polarized state shows a two-peak feature which is different from the other three states. In order to distinguish the ot…
Moiré patterns are known to confine electronic states in transition metal dichalcogenide bilayers, thus generalizing the notion of magic angles discovered in twisted bilayer graphene to semiconductors. Here, we present a revised Slater-Koster tight-binding model that facilitates the first reliable and systematic studies of such states in twisted bilayer MoS$_2$ for the whole range of rotation angles $θ$. We show that isolated bands appear at low energy for $θ\lesssim 5 - 6^\circ$. Moreover, these bands become "flatbands", characterized by a vanishing average velocity, for the smallest angles $…
The competing ground states of bilayer graphene are studied by applying renormalization group techniques to a bilayer honeycomb lattice with nearest neighbor hopping. In the absence of interactions, the Fermi surface of this model at half-filling consists of two nodal points with momenta $\mathbf{K}$, $\mathbf{K}'$, where the conduction band and valence band touch each other, yielding a semi-metal. Since near these two points the energy dispersion is quadratic with perfect particle-hole symmetry, excitonic instabilities are inevitable if inter-band interactions are present. Using a perturbativ…
We perform transport measurements in high quality bilayer graphene pnp junctions with suspended top gates. At a magnetic field B=0, we demonstrate band gap opening by an applied perpendicular electric field, with an On/Off ratio up to 20,000 at 260mK. Within the band gap, the conductance decreases exponentially by 3 orders of magnitude with increasing electric field, and can be accounted for by variable range hopping with a gate-tunable density of states, effective mass, and localization length. At large B, we observe quantum Hall conductance with fractional values, which arise from equilibrat…
The ground state phase diagram of the half-filled repulsive Hubbard model in a bilayer is investigated using cluster dynamical mean field theory. For weak to intermediate values of Coulomb repulsion $U$, the system undergoes a transition from a Mott insulating phase to a metallic phase and then onto a band insulating phase as the interlayer hopping is increased. In the strong coupling case, the model exhibits a direct crossover from a Mott insulating phase to a band insulating phase. These results are robust with respect to the presence or absence of magnetic order.
The effects of the long range electrostatic interaction in twisted bilayer graphene are described using the Hartree-Fock approximation. The results show a significant dependence of the band widths and shapes on electron filling, and the existence of broken symmetry phases at many densities, either valley/spin polarized, with broken sublattice symmetry, or both.
Studies of twisted moiré systems have been mainly focused on two-dimensional (2D) materials such as graphene with Dirac points and transition-metal-dichalcogenide so far. Here we propose a twisted bilayer of 2D systems which feature stable quadratic-band-touching points and find exotic physics different from previously studied twisted moiré systems. Specifically, we show that exactly flat bands can emerge at magic angles and, more interestingly, each flat band exhibits a high Chern number ($C=\pm 2$). We further consider the effect of Coulomb interactions in such magic-angle twisted systems an…
Twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) near "magic angles" has emerged as a rich platform for strongly correlated states of two-dimensional Dirac semimetals. Here we show that twisted bilayers of thin-film magnetic topological insulators (MTI) with large in-plane magnetization can realize flat bands near 2D Dirac nodes. Using a simple model for thin films of MTIs, we derive a continuum model for two such MTIs, twisted by a small angle with respect to each other. When the magnetization is in-plane, we show that interlayer tunneling terms act as effective $SU(2)$ vector potentials, which are known to le…
Search for higher-order topological insulators, characterized by topologically protected gapless boundary states of codimension higher than one, in bosonic systems has attracted growing interest. Here, we establish twisted bilayer honeycomb magnets as a new platform for hosting second-order topological magnon insulators (SOTMIs) without fine-tuning. We employ a simple, minimal Heisenberg spin model to describe misaligned bilayer sheets of honeycomb ferromagnetic magnets with a large commensurate twist angle. We found that the higher-order topology in this bilayer system shows a significant dep…
We investigate the twisted bilayer graphene by a two-orbital Hubbard model on the honeycomb lattice. The model is studied near 1/4 band filling by using the singular-mode functional renormalization group theory. Spin-triplet $f$-wave pairing is found from weak to moderate coupling limit of the local interactions, and is associated with the Hund's rule coupling and incommensurate spin fluctuations at moderate momenta.
We present a comprehensive theory of the magnetic phases in twisted bilayer Cr-trihalides through a combination of first-principles calculations and atomistic simulations. We show that the stacking-dependent interlayer exchange leads to an effective moiré field that is mostly ferromagnetic with antiferromagnetic patches. A wide range of noncollinear magnetic phases can be stabilized as a function of the twist angle and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction as a result of the competing interlayer antiferromagnetic coupling and the energy cost for forming domain walls. In particular, we demonstrate …
We propose a lattice scale two-band generalized Hubbard model as a caricature of the electronic structure of twisted bilayer graphene. Various possible broken symmetry phases can arise, including a nematic phase (which is a form of orbital ferromagnet) and an orbital-triplet spin-singlet superconducting phase. Concerning the mechanism of superconductivity -- we propose an analogy with superconductivity in alkali-doped C$_{60}$ in which a violation of Hund's first rule plays a central role.
We compute the phase diagram of twisted bilayer graphene near the magic angle where the occurrence of flat bands enhances the effects of electron-electron interactions and thus unleashes strongly-correlated phenomena. Most importantly, we find a crossover between d+id superconductivity and Mott insulating behavior near half-filling of the lowest electron band when the temperature is increased. This is consistent with recent experiments. Our results are obtained using unbiased many-body renormalization group techniques combined with a mean-field analysis of the effective couplings.
Recent experiments on twisted bilayer graphene have shown a high-temperature parent state with massless Dirac fermions and broken electronic flavor symmetry; superconductivity and correlated insulators emerge from this parent state at lower temperatures. We propose that the superconducting and correlated insulating orders are connected by Wess-Zumino-Witten terms, so that defects of one order contain quanta of another order and skyrmion fluctuations of the correlated insulator are a "mechanism" for superconductivity. We present a comprehensive listing of plausible low-temperature orders, and t…
Twisted bilayer graphene with a twist angle of around 1.1° features a pair of isolated flat electronic bands and forms a strongly correlated electronic platform. Here, we use scanning tunneling microscopy to probe local properties of highly tunable twisted bilayer graphene devices and show that the flat bands strongly deform when aligned with the Fermi level. At half filling of the bands, we observe the development of gaps originating from correlated insulating states. Near charge neutrality, we find a previously unidentified correlated regime featuring a substantially enhanced flat band split…
The effect of an hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) layer close aligned with twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) is studied. At sufficiently low angles between twisted bilayer graphene and hBN, $θ_{hBN} \lesssim 2^\circ$, the graphene electronic structure is strongly disturbed. The width of the low energy peak in the density of states changes from $W \sim 5 - 10$ meV for a decoupled system to $\sim 20 - 30$ meV. Spikes in the density of states due to van Hove singularities are smoothed out. We find that for a realistic combination of the twist angle in the TBG and the twist angle between the hBN and the…
In this work, we determine states of electronic order of small-angle twisted bilayer graphene. Ground states are determined for weak and strong couplings which are representatives for varying distances of the twist-angle from its magic value. In the weak-coupling regime, charge density waves emerge which break translational and $C_{3}$-rotational symmetry. In the strong coupling-regime, we find rotational and translational symmetry breaking Mott insulating states for all commensurate moiré band fillings. Depending on the local occupation of superlattice sites hosting up to four electrons, glob…
We present a combined experimental and theoretical study of twisted double bilayer graphene with twist angles between 1° and 1.35°. Consistent with moiré band structure calculations, we observe insulators at integer moiré band fillings one and three, but not two. An applied transverse electric field separates the first moiré conduction band from neighbouring bands, and favors the appearance of correlated insulators at 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 band filling. Insulating states at 1/4 and 3/4 band filling emerge only in a parallel magnetic field (B_{||}), whereas the resistance at half band filling is we…
The emergence of correlated insulating phases in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene exhibits strong sample dependence. Here, we derive an Anderson theorem governing the robustness against disorder of the Kramers intervalley coherent (K-IVC) state, a prime candidate for describing the correlated insulators at even fillings of the moiré flat bands. We find that the K-IVC gap is robust against local perturbations, which are odd under $\mathcal{PT}$, where $\mathcal{P}$ and $\mathcal{T}$ denote particle-hole conjugation and time reversal, respectively. In contrast, $\mathcal{PT}$-even perturbati…
Recent mean-field calculations suggest that the superconducting state of twisted bilayer graphene exhibits either a nematic order or a spontaneous breakdown of the time-reversal symmetry. The two-dimensional character of the material and the large critical temperature relative to the Fermi energy dictate that the material should have significant fluctuations. We study the effects of these fluctuations using Monte Carlo simulations. We show that in a model proposed earlier for twisted bilayer graphene there is a fluctuation-induced phase with quadrupling fermionic order for all considered param…
The pairing symmetry of an effective Hamiltonian for interacting fermions on a twisted bilayer graphene superlattice is studied with the determinant quantum Monte Carlo method. The model has the symmetry of a triangle lattice and a nearly-flat low energy band, features which underlie the magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene superlattice. We show that the low temperature phase is insulating at half-filling, even for relatively weak interactions. The natures of the spin and pairing correlations upon doping are determined, and exhibit an electron-hole asymmetry consistent with experiment. Among t…
We review analytical and numerical studies of correlated insulating states in twisted bilayer graphene, focusing on real-space lattice models constructions and their unbiased quantum many-body solutions. We show that by constructing localized Wannier states for the narrow bands, the projected Coulomb interactions can be approximated by interactions of cluster charges with assisted nearest neighbor hopping terms. With the interaction part only, the Hamiltonian is $SU(4)$ symmetric considering both spin and valley degrees of freedom. In the strong coupling limit where the kinetic terms are negle…
The recent discovery of correlated insulator states and superconductivity in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene has paved the way to the experimental investigation of electronic correlations in tunable flat band systems realized in twisted van der Waals heterostructures. This novel twist angle degree of freedom and control should be generalizable to other 2D systems, which may exhibit similar correlated physics behavior while at the same time enabling new techniques to tune and control the strength of electron-electron interactions. Here, we report on a new highly tunable correlated system b…
In this work we carry out a theoretical study of the phonon-induced resistivity in twisted double bilayer graphene (TDBG), in which two Bernal-stacked bilayer graphene devices are rotated relative to each other by a small angle $θ$. We show that at small twist angles ($θ\sim 1^\circ$) the effective mass of the TDBG system is greatly enhanced, leading to a drastically increased phonon-induced resistivity in the high-temperature limit where phonon scattering leads to a linearly increasing resistivity with increasing temperature. We also discuss possible implications of our theory on superconduct…
We propose a method for studying the strong interaction regimes in twisted bilayer graphene using hybrid Wannier functions, that are Wannier-like in one direction and Bloch-like in the other. We focus on the active bands as given by the continuum model proposed by Bistritzer and MacDonald, and discuss the properties of corresponding hybrid Wannier functions. We then employ the method for a study of the fillings of $\pm 3$ electrons per moiré cell using the Hartree-Fock method. We discuss at length different regimes under which a quantized anomalous Hall effect is seen in these two fillings.
Nematic superconductors possess unconventional superconducting order parameters that spontaneously break rotational symmetry of the underlying crystal. In this work we propose a mechanism for nematic superconductivity stabilized by strong density wave fluctuations in two dimensions. While the weak-coupling theory finds the fully gapped chiral state to be energetically stable, we show that strong density wave fluctuations result in an additional contribution to the free energy of a superconductor with multicomponent order parameters, which generally favors nematic superconductivity. Our theory …
We investigate the many-body instabilities of electrons interacting near Van Hove singularities arising in monolayer and twisted bilayer graphene. We show that a pairing instability must be dominant over the tendency to magnetic order as the Fermi level is tuned to the Van Hove singularity in the conduction band of graphene. As a result of the extended character of the saddle points in the dispersion, we find that the pairing of the electrons takes place preferentially in a channel of f-wave symmetry, with an order parameter vanishing at the position of the saddle points along the Fermi line. …
We investigate electronic transport in dual-gated twisted bilayer graphene. Despite the sub-nanometer proximity between the layers, we identify independent contributions to the magnetoresistance from the graphene Landau level spectrum of each layer. We demonstrate that the filling factor of each layer can be independently controlled via the dual gates, which we use to induce Landau level crossings between the layers. By analyzing the gate dependence of the Landau level crossings, we characterize the finite inter-layer screening and extract the capacitance between the atomically-spaced layers. …
Twisted double bilayer graphene has recently emerged as an interesting moiré material that exhibits strong correlation phenomena that are tunable by an applied electric field. Here we study the atomic and electronic properties of three different graphene double bilayers: double bilayers composed of two AB stacked bilayers (AB/AB), double bilayers composed of two AA stacked bilayers (AA/AA) as well as heterosystems composed of one AB and one AA bilayer (AB/AA). The atomic structure is determined using classical force fields. We find that the inner layers of the double bilayer exhibit significan…
We predict twisted double bilayer graphene to be a versatile platform for the realization of fractional Chern insulators readily targeted by tuning the gate potential and the twist angle. Remarkably, these topologically ordered states of matter, including spin singlet Halperin states and spin polarized states in Chern number $\mathcal C=1$ and $\mathcal{C}= 2$ bands, occur at high temperatures and without the need for an external magnetic field.
The ability to control the strength of interaction is essential for studying quantum phenomena emerging from a system of correlated fermions. For example, the isotope effect illustrates the effect of electron-phonon coupling on superconductivity, providing an important experimental support for the BCS theory. In this work, we report a new device geometry where the magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (tBLG) is placed in close proximity to a Bernal bilayer graphene (BLG) separated by a 3 nm thick barrier. Using charge screening from the Bernal bilayer, the strength of electron-electron Coulomb …
The recently observed superconductivity in twisted bilayer graphene emerges from insulating states believed to arise from electronic correlations. While there have been many proposals to explain the insulating behaviour, the commensurability at which these states appear suggests that they are Mott insulators. Here we focus on the insulating states with $\pm 2$ electrons or holes with respect to the charge neutrality point. We show that the theoretical expectations for the Mott insulating states are not compatible with the experimentally observed dependence on temperature and magnetic field if,…
By using the first-principles method based on density of functional theory, we study the electronic properties of twisted bilayer graphene with some specific twist angles and interlayer spacings. With the decrease of the twist angle(the unit cell becomes larger), the energy band becomes narrower and Coulomb repulsion increases, leading to the enhancement of electronic correlation; On the other hand, as the interlayer spacing decreases and the interlayer coupling becomes stronger, the correlation becomes stronger. By tuning the interlayer coupling, we can realize the strongly correlated state w…
The degeneracy of Landau levels flanking charge neutrality in twisted bilayer graphene is known to change from eight-fold to four-fold when the twist angle is reduced to values near the magic angle of $\approx 1.05^\circ$. This degeneracy lifting has been reproduced in experiments by multiple groups, and is known to occur even in devices which do not harbor the correlated insulators and superconductors. We propose $C_3$ symmetry breaking as an explanation of such robust degeneracy lifting, and support our proposal by numerical results on the Landau level spectrum in near-magic-angle twisted bi…
Focusing on the twist angle for the minimal commensurate structure, we perform nonperturbative calculations of electron dynamics in the twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) under intense laser fields. We show that the TBG exhibits enriched high-harmonic generation that cannot occur in monolayer or conventional bilayers. We elucidate the mechanism of these nonlinear responses by analyzing dynamical symmetries, momentum-resolved dynamics, and roles of interlayer coupling. Our results imply nonlinear "optotwistronics," or controlling optical properties of layered materials by artificial twists.
We report scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS) of twisted graphene bilayer on SiC substrate. For twist angle ~ 4.5o the Dirac point ED is located about 0.40 eV below the Fermi level EF due to the electron doping at the graphene/SiC interface. We observed an unexpected result that the local Dirac point around a nanoscaled defect shifts towards the Fermi energy during the STS measurements (with a time scale about 100 seconds). This behavior was attributed to the decoupling between the twisted graphene and the substrate during the measurements, which lowers the carrier densi…
