# Quantum twisting microscopy of phonons in twisted bilayer graphene

https://mdr.nims.go.jp/datasets/85c4d4d3-f78a-401d-b8d7-aa7db2fb4f06

## File

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## Id

85c4d4d3-f78a-401d-b8d7-aa7db2fb4f06

## Local identifier



## Visibility

open_to_public

## State

published

## Created at

2026-05-23T06:39:17.182581Z

## Updated at

2026-05-24T23:49:56.733595Z

## Published at

2026-05-25T01:29:20.275044Z

## Doi



## First published url

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08881-8

## Date published

2025-05-08

## Recorded date published

2025-5-8

## Resource type

journal_article

## Manuscript type

vor

## Collection



## Title

- title: Quantum twisting microscopy of phonons in twisted bilayer graphene
  title_type: original
  lang: en

## Description

- description: The coupling between electrons and phonons is one of the fundamental
    interactions in solids, underpinning a wide range of phenomena such as resistivity,
    heat conductivity, and superconductivity. However, direct measurements of this
    coupling for individual phonon modes remains a significant challenge. In this
    work, we introduce a novel technique for mapping phonon dispersions and electron
    phonon coupling (EPC) in van der Waals materials. By generalizing the quantum
    twisting microscope1 to cryogenic temperatures, we demonstrate its capability
    to map not only electronic dispersions via elastic momentum-conserving tunnelling,
    but also phononic dispersions through inelastic momentum-conserving tunnelling.
    Crucially, the inelastic tunnelling strength provides a direct and quantitative
    measure of the momentum and mode resolved EPC. We use this technique to measure
    the phonon spectrum and EPC of twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) with twist angles
    larger than 6°. Surprisingly, we find that unlike standard acoustic phonons, whose
    coupling to electrons diminishes as their momentum goes to zero, TBG exhibits
    a low energy mode whose coupling increases with decreasing twist angle. We show
    that this unusual coupling arises from the modulation of the inter-layer tunnelling
    by a layer-antisymmetric “phason” mode of the moiré system. The technique demonstrated
    here opens the way for probing a large variety of other neutral collective modes
    that couple to electronic tunnelling, including plasmons2, magnons3 and spinons4
    in quantum materials.
  description_type: abstract
  lang: und

## Creator

- name: J. Birkbeck
  role: author
- name: J. Xiao
  role: author
- name: A. Inbar
  role: author
- name: T. Taniguchi
  role: author
  orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1467-3105
  organization: National Institute for Materials Science
- name: K. Watanabe
  role: author
  orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3701-8119
  organization: National Institute for Materials Science
- name: E. Berg
  role: author
- name: L. Glazman
  role: author
- name: F. Guinea
  role: author
- name: F. von Oppen
  role: author
- name: S. Ilani
  role: author

## Contact agent



## Publisher

organization: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

## Managing organization



## Keyword

- subject: 'quantum twisting microscopy (QTM)
    '
  schema: not_defined
- subject: 'phonons
    '
  schema: not_defined
- subject: 'twisted bilayer graphene (TBG)
    '
  schema: not_defined

## Rights

- identifier: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
  date_licensed: 2025-04-23

## Other identifier(s)



## Data origin

- data_origin_type: other

## Embargo



## Journal

- title: Nature
  issn: '00280836'
  volume: '641'
  issue: '8062'
  start_page: 345
  end_page: 351

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## Fileset

- id: f84b6b30-25d6-43ac-9244-d16b2d522359
  filename: s41586-025-08881-8.pdf
  content_type: application/pdf
  size: 20619366
  md5: 97168e4a8ee18f25f28333156897651c

## Thumbnail

fileset_id: f84b6b30-25d6-43ac-9244-d16b2d522359
filename: s41586-025-08881-8.pdf