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Kekulé spirals and charge transfer cascades in twisted symmetric trilayer graphene

Abstract:

We study the phase diagram of magic-angle twisted symmetric trilayer graphene in the presence of uniaxial heterostrain and interlayer displacement field. For experimentally reasonable strain, our mean-field analysis finds robust Kekulé spiral order whose doping-dependent ordering vector is incommensurate with the moiré superlattice, consistent with recent scanning tunneling microscopy experiments, and paralleling the behavior of closely related twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) systems. Strikingly, we identify a possibility absent in TBG: the existence of commensurate Kekulé spiral order even at zero strain for experimentally realistic values of the interlayer potential in a trilayer. Our studies also reveal a complex pattern of charge transfer between weakly and strongly dispersive bands in strained trilayer samples as the density is tuned by electrostatic gating, that can be understood intuitively in terms of the “cascades” in the compressibility of magic-angle TBG.

Publication status:
Published
Peer review status:
Peer reviewed

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Publisher copy:
10.1103/physrevb.109.l201119

Authors


More by this author
Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
MPLS
Department:
Physics
Sub department:
Theoretical Physics
Role:
Author
More by this author
Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
MPLS
Department:
Physics
Sub department:
Theoretical Physics
Role:
Author
More by this author
Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
MPLS
Department:
Physics
Sub department:
Theoretical Physics
Oxford college:
Somerville College
Role:
Author
ORCID:
0000-0001-7757-5978


More from this funder
Funder identifier:
https://ror.org/0472cxd90
Grant:
804213
More from this funder
Funder identifier:
https://ror.org/0439y7842
Grant:
EP/S020527/1


Publisher:
American Physical Society
Journal:
Physical Review B More from this journal
Volume:
109
Issue:
20
Article number:
L201119
Publication date:
2024-05-16
Acceptance date:
2024-05-03
DOI:
EISSN:
2469-9969
ISSN:
2469-9950


Language:
English
Keywords:
Pubs id:
2001551
Local pid:
pubs:2001551
Deposit date:
2024-09-05

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