Dispersion forces between weakly disordered van der Waals crystals

We describe a many-body theory for interlayer dispersion forces between weakly disordered atomically thin crystals and numerically investigate the role of disorder for different layer-separation distances and for different densities of induced electrons and holes. In contrast to the common wisdom that disorder tends to enhance the importance of Coulomb interactions in Fermi liquids, we find that short-range disorder tends to weaken interlayer dispersion forces. This is in line with previous findings that suggest that transitioning from metallic to insulating propagation weakens interlayer dispersion forces. We demonstrate that disorder alters the scaling laws of dispersion forces and we comment on the role of the maximally crossed vertex-correction diagrams responsible for logarithmic divergences in the resistivity of two-dimensional metals.

Automated summary

We describe a many-body theory for interlayer dispersion forces and investigate the role of disorder, finding that short-range disorder tends to weaken interlayer dispersion forces. This is consistent with previous research suggesting transitioning from metallic to insulating propagation weakens these forces.