Microscopic theory for electron-phonon coupling in twisted bilayer graphene

Abstract

The origin of superconductivity in twisted bilayer graphene -- whether phonon-driven or electron-driven -- remains unresolved. The answer to this question is hindered by the absence of a quantitative and efficient model for electron-phonon coupling (EPC). In this work, we develop a first-principles-based microscopic theory to calculate EPC in twisted bilayer graphene for arbitrary twist angles without needing a periodic moir\'e supercell. We adopt a momentum-space model for the electronic and phonon structures and quantify the EPC using generalized Eliashberg-McMillan theory for superconductivity without an adiabatic approximation. Using this framework, we find that the EPC is significantly enhanced near the magic angle, and drops abruptly for larger twist angles. We show that the EPC strength of a phonon corresponds to the modification of the moir\'e potential. In particular, we identify several \(\Gamma\)-phonon branches that contribute most significantly to the EPC, including one layer breathing mode, three layer shearing modes, and one chiral mode. These phonons should be experimentally detectable via Raman spectroscopy.