Nematicity with a twist: Rotational symmetry breaking in a moiré superlattice

Fernandes, Rafael M.; Venderbos, Jörn W. F.

doi:10.1126/sciadv.aba8834

Nematicity with a twist: Rotational symmetry breaking in a moiré superlattice

Journal Article · Wed Aug 05 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Science Advances

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aba8834· OSTI ID:1645172

^[1]; Venderbos, Jörn W. F. ^[2]

School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
Department of Physics, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA., Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.

Motivated by recent reports of nematic order in twisted bilayer graphene (TBG), we investigate the impact of the triangular moiré superlattice degrees of freedom on nematicity. In TBG, the nematic order parameter is not Ising like, as in tetragonal crystals, but has a three-state Potts character related to the threefold rotational symmetry ( C _{3 z} ) of the moiré superlattice. We find that, even in the presence of static strain that explicitly breaks the C _{3 z} symmetry, the system can still undergo a nematic-flop phase transition that spontaneously breaks in-plane twofold rotations. Moreover, elastic fluctuations, manifested as acoustic phonons, mediate a nemato-orbital coupling that ties the nematic director orientation to certain soft directions in momentum space, rendering the Potts-nematic transition mean field and first order. In contrast to the case of rigid crystals, the Fermi surface hot spots associated with these soft directions are maximally coupled to low-energy nematic fluctuations in the moiré superlattice case.

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Research Organization:: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0020045

OSTI ID:: 1645172

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1656925

Journal Information:: Science Advances, Journal Name: Science Advances Journal Issue: 32 Vol. 6; ISSN 2375-2548

Publisher:: AAASCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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