Twistronics versus straintronics in twisted bilayers of graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides

Abstract

Several numerical studies have shown that the electronic properties of twisted bilayers of graphene (TBLG) and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are tunable by strain engineering of the stacking layers. In particular, the flatness of the low-energy moir\'e bands of the rigid and the relaxed TBLG was found to be, substantially, sensitive to the strain. However, to the best of our knowledge, there are no full analytical calculations of the effect of strain on such bands. We derive, based on the continuum model of moir\'e flat bands, the low-energy Hamiltonian of twisted homobilayers of graphene and TMDs under strain at small twist angles. We obtain the analytical expressions of the strain-renormalized Dirac velocities and explain the role of strain in the emergence of the flat bands. We discuss how strain could correct the twist angles and bring them closer to the magic angle ${\ensuremath{\theta}}_{m}=1.{05}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$ of TBLG and how it may reduce the widths of the lowest-energy bands at charge neutrality of the twisted homobilayer of TMDs. The analytical results are compared with numerical and experimental findings and also with our numerical calculations based on the continuum model.