Trigonal warping, satellite Dirac points, and multiple field tuned topological transitions in twisted double bilayer graphene

• Published in: Physical review. B 2021-04, Vol.103 (15), p.1, Article 155149
• Main Authors: Mohan, Priyanka, Ghorai, Unmesh, Sensarma, Rajdeep
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bilayers; Brillouin zones; Chirality; Cones; Electric fields; Energy bands; Energy gap; Graphene; Interlayers; Parameters; Phase diagrams; Topology; Valleys; Warping
• ISSN: 2469-9950; 2469-9969
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.103.155149

We show that the valley Chern number of the low-energy band in twisted double bilayer graphene can be tuned through two successive topological transitions, where the direct band gap closes, by changing the electric field perpendicular to the plane of the graphene layers. The two transitions with Chern number changes of −3 and +1 can be explained by the formation of three satellite Dirac points around the central Dirac cone in the moiré Brillouin zone due to the presence of trigonal warping. The satellite cones have opposite chirality to the central Dirac cone. Considering the overlap of the bands in energy, which lead to metallic states, we construct the experimentally observable phase diagram of the system in terms of the indirect band gap and the anomalous valley Hall conductivity. We show that while most of the intermediate phase becomes metallic, there is a narrow parameter regime where the transition through three insulating phases with different quantized valley Hall conductivity can be seen. We systematically study the effects of variations in the model parameters on the phase diagram of the system to reveal the importance of particle-hole asymmetry and trigonal warping in constructing the phase diagram. We also study the effect of changes in interlayer tunneling on this phase diagram.