Electronic structures and quantum capacitance of twisted bilayer graphene with defects based on three-band tight-binding model

Abstract

Twisted bilayer graphene (tBLG) with C vacancies would greatly improve the density of states (DOS) around the Fermi level (E_F) and quantum capacitance; however, the single-band tight-binding model only considering p_z orbitals cannot accurately capture the low-energy physics of tBLG with C vacancies. In this work, a three-band tight-binding model containing three p orbitals of C atoms is proposed to explore the modulation mechanism of C vacancies on the DOS and quantum capacitance of tBLG. We first obtain the hopping integral parameters of the three-band tight-binding model, and then explore the electronic structures and the quantum capacitance of tBLG at a twisting angle of θ = 1.47° under different C vacancy concentrations. The impurity states contributed by C atoms with dangling bonds located around the E_F and the interlayer hopping interaction could induce band splitting of the impurity states. Therefore, compared with the quantum capacitance of pristine tBLG (∼18.82 μF cm⁻²) at zero bias, the quantum capacitance is improved to ∼172.76 μF cm⁻² at zero bias, and the working window with relatively large quantum capacitance in the low-voltage range is broadened in tBLG with C vacancies due to the enhanced DOS around the E_F. Moreover, the quantum capacitance of tBLG is further increased at zero bias with an increase of the C vacancy concentration induced by more impurity states. These findings not only provide a suitable multi-band tight-binding model to describe tBLG with C vacancies but also offer theoretical insight for designing electrode candidates for low-power consumption devices with improved quantum capacitance.