Electrostatic effects, band distortions, and superconductivity in twisted graphene bilayers

Abstract

Bilayer graphene twisted by a small angle shows a significant charge modulation away from neutrality, as the charge in the narrow bands near the Dirac point is mostly localized in a fraction of the Moiré unit cell. The resulting electrostatic potential leads to a filling-dependent change in the low-energy bands, of a magnitude comparable to or larger than the bandwidth. These modifications can be expressed in terms of new electron–electron interactions, which, when expressed in a local basis, describe electron-assisted hopping terms. These interactions favor superconductivity at certain fillings.