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

Nano Letters
Chaoyu ChenMaria Carmen Asensio

Abstract

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. 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.

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Mar 7, 2017·Journal of Physics. Condensed Matter : an Institute of Physics Journal·Chaoyu ChenMaria C Asensio
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Jun 9, 2017·Nature Communications·Carla VerdiFeliciano Giustino

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Citations

Apr 11, 2018·Nature Materials·Chaoyu ChenMaria C Asensio
Jul 4, 2020·Journal of Physics. Condensed Matter : an Institute of Physics Journal·Yong SunZi-Wu Wang
Mar 1, 2019·Scientific Reports·Gesiel Gomes SilvaGeraldo Magela E Silva
Nov 17, 2021·ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces·Shuai GuoRuibin Liu

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