Band-unfolding approach to moire-induced band-gap opening and Fermi level velocity reduction in twisted bilayer graphene

摘要

We report on the energy spectrum of electrons in twisted bilayer graphene (tBLG) obtained by the band-unfolding method in the tight-binding model. We find the band-gap opening at particular points in the reciprocal space, that elucidates the drastic reduction of the Fermi-level velocity with the tiny twisted angles in tBLGs. We find that moiré pattern caused by the twist of the two graphene layers generates interactions among Dirac cones, otherwise absent, and the resultant cone-cone interactions peculiar to each point in the reciprocal space causes the energy gap and thus reduces the Fermi-level velocity.