Conduction between graphene layers is suppressed by momentum conservation whenever the layer stacking has a rotation. Here we show that phonon scattering plays a crucial role in facilitating interlayer conduction. The resulting dependence on orientation is radically different than previously expected, and far more favorable for device applications. At low temperatures, we predict diode-like current-voltage characteristics due to a phonon bottleneck. Simple scaling relationships give a good description of the conductance as a function of temperature, doping, rotation angle, and bias voltage, reflecting the dominant role of the interlayer beating phonon mode.
@article{arxiv.1211.0559,
title = {Phonon mediated interlayer conductance in twisted graphene bilayers},
author = {V. Perebeinos and J. Tersoff and Ph. Avouris},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1211.0559},
year = {2015}
}