Thermal conductivity of twisted bilayer graphene

We have investigated experimentally the thermal conductivity of suspended twisted bilayer graphene. The measurements were performed using an optothermal Raman technique. It was found that the thermal conductivity of twisted bilayer graphene is lower than that of monolayer graphene and the reference, Bernal stacked bilayer graphene in the entire temperature range examined (∼300-700 K). This finding indicates that the heat carriers - phonons - in twisted bilayer graphene do not behave in the same manner as that observed in individual graphene layers. The decrease in the thermal conductivity found in twisted bilayer graphene was explained by the modification of the Brillouin zone due to plane rotation and the emergence of numerous folded phonon branches that enhance the phonon Umklapp and normal scattering. The results obtained are important for understanding thermal transport in two-dimensional systems.