English

Microscopic theory for electron-phonon coupling in twisted bilayer graphene

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2026-02-12 v3 Strongly Correlated Electrons Superconductivity

Abstract

The origin of superconductivity in twisted bilayer graphene -- whether phonon-driven or electron-driven -- remains unresolved, in part due to the absence of a quantitative and efficient model for electron-phonon coupling (EPC). In this work, we develop a first-principles-based microscopic theory to calculate EPC in twisted bilayer graphene for arbitrary twist angles without requiring a periodic moir\'e supercell. Our approach combines a momentum-space continuum model for both electronic and phononic structures with a generalized Eliashberg-McMillan theory beyond the adiabatic approximation. Using this framework, we find that the EPC is strongly enhanced near the magic angle. The superconducting transition temperature induced by low-energy phonons peaks at 1.11.1^\circ around 1 K, and remains finite for a range of angles both below and above the magic angles. We predict that superconductivity persists up to 1.4\sim 1.4^\circ, where superconductivity has been recently observed despite the dispersive electronic bands. Beyond a large density of states, we identify a key condition for strong EPC: resonance between the electronic bandwidth and the dominant phonon frequencies. We also show that the EPC strength of a specific phonon corresponds to the modification of the moir\'e potential. In particular, we identify several Γ\Gamma-phonon branches that contribute most significantly to the EPC, which are experimentally detectable via Raman spectroscopy.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2407.03293,
  title  = {Microscopic theory for electron-phonon coupling in twisted bilayer graphene},
  author = {Ziyan Zhu and Thomas P. Devereaux},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2407.03293},
  year   = {2026}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T17:28:14.107Z