paper

Extended linear-in- resistivity due to electron-phason scattering in moiré superlattices

arXiv:2302.00043 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.108.075168

Abstract

Due to its incommensurate nature, moiré superlattices host not only acoustic phonons but also another type of soft collective modes called phasons. Here, we investigate the impact of electron-phason scattering on the transport properties of moiré systems. We show that the resistivity can scale linearly with temperature down to temperatures much lower than the Bloch-Grüneisen scale defined by electron kinematics on the Fermi surface. This result stems from the friction between layers, which transfers phason spectral weight to a broad diffusive low-energy peak in the mechanical response of the system. As a result, phason scattering becomes a very efficient channel for entropy production at low temperatures. We also consider the contributions of phasons to thermodynamic properties at low temperatures and find a ''metallic-like'' linear-in- behavior for the specific heat, despite the fact that this behavior is due to mechanical and not electronic degrees of freedom. We discuss the implications of this finding to reports of linear-in- resistivity in the phase diagram of twisted bilayer graphene.

arXiv comment12 pages, 5 figures; new calculations of the resistivity and the specific heat added

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