Litcius/Paper detail

Theory of Correlated Insulators and Superconductivity in Twisted Bilayer Graphene

Gal Shavit, Erez Berg, Ady Stern, Yuval Oreg

2021Physical Review Letters58 citationsDOIOpen Access PDF

Abstract

We introduce and analyze a model that sheds light on the interplay between correlated insulating states, superconductivity, and flavor-symmetry breaking in magic angle twisted bilayer graphene. Using a variational mean-field theory, we determine the normal-state phase diagram of our model as a function of the band filling. The model features robust insulators at even integer fillings, occasional weaker insulators at odd integer fillings, and a pattern of flavor-symmetry breaking at noninteger fillings. Adding a phonon-mediated intervalley retarded attractive interaction, we obtain strong-coupling superconducting domes, whose structure is in qualitative agreement with experiments. Our model elucidates how the intricate form of the interactions and the particle-hole asymmetry of the electronic structure determine the phase diagram. It also explains how subtle differences between devices may lead to the different behaviors observed experimentally. A similar model can be applied with minor modifications to other moiré systems, such as twisted trilayer graphene.

Topics & Concepts

Condensed matter physicsSuperconductivityPhase diagramBilayer graphenePhysicsBilayerAsymmetryElectronic band structurePhase (matter)Electronic structureFunction (biology)High-temperature superconductivityPhase transitionMaterials scienceSymmetry breakingInteger (computer science)Quantum mechanicsStructure functionGraphene research and applicationsTopological Materials and Phenomena2D Materials and Applications