Nearly flat bands in twisted triple bilayer graphene

We investigate the electronic structure of alternating-twist triple Bernal-stacked bilayer graphene (t3BG) as a function of interlayer coupling $ω$, twist angle $θ$, interlayer potential difference $Δ$, and top-bottom bilayers sliding vector $\boldsymbolτ$ for three possible configurations AB/AB/AB, AB/BA/AB, and AB/AB/BA. The parabolic low-energy band dispersions in a Bernal-stacked bilayer and gap-opening through a finite interlayer potential difference $Δ$ allows the flattening of bands in t3BG down to $\sim 20$~meV for twist angles $θ\lesssim 2^{\circ}$ regardless of the stacking types. The easier isolation of the flat bands and associated reduction of Coulomb screening thanks to the intrinsic gaps of bilayer graphene for finite $Δ$ facilitate the formation of correlation-driven gaps when it is compared to the metallic phases of twisted trilayer graphene under electric fields. We obtain the stacking dependent Coulomb energy versus bandwidth $U/W \gtrsim 1$ ratios in the $θ$ and $Δ$ parameter space. We also present the expected $K$-valley Chern numbers for the lowest-energy nearly flat bands.

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