Emergence of Interfacial Polarons from Electron–Phonon Coupling in Graphene/h-BN van der Waals Heterostructures

Chen, Chaoyu; Avila, Jose; Wang, Shuopei; Wang, Yao; Mucha-Kruczy?ski, Marcin; Shen, Cheng; Yang, Rong; Nosarzewski, Benjamin; Devereaux, Thomas P.; Zhang, Guangyu; Asensio, Maria Carmen

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b04604

Emergence of Interfacial Polarons from Electron–Phonon Coupling in Graphene/h-BN van der Waals Heterostructures

Journal Article · Fri Jan 05 00:00:00 EST 2018 · Nano Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b04604· OSTI ID:1461624

^[1]; Avila, Jose ^[1]; Wang, Shuopei ^[2]; Wang, Yao ^[3]; Mucha-Kruczy?ski, Marcin ^[4]; Shen, Cheng ^[2]; Yang, Rong ^[2]; Nosarzewski, Benjamin ^[5]; Devereaux, Thomas P. ^[6]; Zhang, Guangyu ^[2]; Asensio, Maria Carmen ^[1]

Synchrotron SOLEIL and Univ. Paris-Saclay, Gif sur Yvette Cedex (France)
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Univ. of Bath, Bath (United Kingdom)
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China); SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)

van der Waals heterostructures, vertical stacks of layered materials, offer new opportunities for novel quantum phenomena which are absent in their constituent components. Here we report the emergence of polaron quasiparticles at the interface of graphene/hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) heterostructures. Using nanospot angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we observe zone-corner replicas of h-BN valence band maxima, with energy spacing coincident with the highest phonon energy of the heterostructure, an indication of Fröhlich polaron formation due to forward-scattering electron–phonon coupling. Parabolic fitting of the h-BN bands yields an effective mass enhancement of ~2.3, suggesting an intermediate coupling strength. Our theoretical simulations based on Migdal–Eliashberg theory corroborate the experimental results, allowing the extraction of microscopic physical parameters. Moreover, renormalization of graphene π-band is observed due to the hybridization with the h-BN band. Lastly, our work generalizes the polaron study from transition metal oxides to van der Waals heterostructures with higher material flexibility, highlighting interlayer coupling as an extra degree of freedom to explore emergent phenomena.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center; SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231; AC02-76SF00515

OSTI ID:: 1461624

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1484748

Journal Information:: Nano Letters, Journal Name: Nano Letters Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 18; ISSN 1530-6984

Publisher:: American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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