Flat band electrons and interactions in rhombohedral trilayer graphene

Abstract

Multilayer graphene systems with a rhombohedral stacking order harbor nearly flat bands in their single-particle spectrum. We propose ansatz states to describe the surface-localized states of flat band electrons. The absence of kinetic dispersion near the Fermi level leaves the interaction as a dominate mechanism to govern the low-energy physics of a low-density electron system. We build up an effective lattice model in two interacting low-energy bands, where the full terms of the Coulomb interaction, including those long-range and off-diagonal parts, have been considered. The interaction matrix coefficients in the many-body Hamiltonian model are directly calculated for a trilayer system using orthonormal Wannier basis. We then present a flat band projection to yield an interaction-only lattice model for flat band electrons. We find that this limited model might energetically favor a ferromagnetic quantum crystal under certain conditions. © 2013 American Physical Society.