Gating electron-hole asymmetry in twisted bilayer graphene

Abstract

Electron-hole symmetry is one of the unique properties of graphene that is generally absent in most semiconductors because of the different conduction and valence band structures. Here we report on the manipulation of electron-hole symmetry in the low-energy band structure of twisted bilayer graphene, where symmetric saddle points form in the conduction and valence bands as a result of interlayer coupling. By applying a gate voltage to a twisted bilayer with a critical rotation angle, enhanced electron resonance between the two saddle points can be turned on or off, depending on the electron-hole symmetry near the saddle points. The appearance of a 2D+ peak, a gate-tunable Raman feature found near the critical angle, indicates a reduction of Fermi velocity in the vicinity of the saddle point to/from which electrons are inelastically scattered by phonons in the round trip of the double-resonance process. © 2014 American Chemical Society.