Thermoelectric properties of magic angle twisted bilayer graphene–superconductor heterojunction: Effect of valley polarization and trigonal warping

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the thermoelectric properties (electronic contribution) of a normal-superconductor (NS) hybrid junction, where the normal region consists of magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (MATBG). The superconducting region is characterized by a conventional s-wave superconductor closely proximitized to the MATBG. We compute various thermoelectric coefficients, including thermal conductance, thermopower, and the figure-of-merit (zT), using the scattering matrix formalism. These results are further supported by calculations based on a lattice-regularized version of the effective Hamiltonian. Additionally, we explore the impact of trigonal warping and valley polarization on the thermoelectric coefficients. Notably, we find a significant variation in zT as a function of these parameters, reaching values as high as 2.5. Interestingly, we observe a violation of the Wiedemann-Franz law near the charge neutrality point with the superconducting correlation, indicating that MATBG electrons behave as slow Dirac fermions in this regime. This observation is further confirmed by the damped oscillatory behavior of the thermal conductance as a function of the barrier strength when an insulating barrier is modeled at the interface of the NS junction. Beyond theoretical insights, our findings suggest possibilities for thermoelectric applications using MATBG-based NS junctions.

Source-reported materials — not catalogue approval

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