Extreme sensitivity of the electric-field-induced band gap to the electronic topological transition in sliding bilayer graphene

We have investigated the effect of electronic topological transition on the electric field-induced band gap in sliding bilayer graphene by using the density functional theory calculations. The electric field-induced band gap was found to be extremely sensitive to the electronic topological transition. At the electronic topological transition induced by layer sliding, four Dirac cones in the Bernal-stacked bilayer graphene reduces to two Dirac cones with equal or unequal Dirac energies depending on the sliding direction. While the critical electric field required for the band gap opening increases with increasing lateral shift for the two Dirac cones with unequal Dirac energies, the critical field is essentially zero with or without a lateral shift for the two Dirac cones with equal Dirac energies. The critical field is determined by the Dirac energy difference and the electronic screening effect. The electronic screening effect was also found to be enhanced with increasing lateral shift, apparently indicating that the massless helical and massive chiral fermions are responsible for the perfect and imperfect electronic screening, respectively.