Understanding Interlayer Contact Conductance in Twisted Bilayer Graphene

Bilayer or few-layer 2D materials showing novel electrical properties in electronic device applications have aroused increasing interest in recent years. Obtaining a comprehensive understanding of interlayer contact conductance still remains a challenge, but is significant for improving the performance of bilayer or few-layer 2D electronic devices. Here, conductive atomic force microscope (C-AFM) experiments are reported to explore the interlayer contact conductance between bilayer graphene (BLG) with various twisted stacking structures fabricated by the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. The current maps show that the interlayer contact conductance between BLG strongly depends on the twist angle. The interlayer contact conductance of 0 degrees AB-stacking bilayer graphene (AB-BLG) is approximate to 4 times as large as that of 30 degrees twisted bilayer graphene (t-BLG), which indicates that the twist angle-dependent interlayer contact conductance originates from the coupling-decoupling transitions. Moreover, the moire superlattice-level current images of t-BLG show modulations of local interlayer contact conductance. Density functional theory calculations together with a theoretical model reproduce the C-AFM current map and show that the modulation is mainly attributed to the overall contribution of local interfacial carrier density and tunneling barrier.