Emergence of Frohlich polaron from interlayer electron-phonon coupling in van der Waals heterostructure

Van der Waals heterostructures, vertical stacks of layered materials, offer newopportunities for novel quantum phenomena which are absent in their constituent components. Here we report the emergence of polaron quasiparticles at the interface of graphene/hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) heterostructures. Using nanospot angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we observe zone-corner replicas of h-BN valence band maxima, with energy spacing coincident with the highest phonon energy of the heterostructure|an indication of Frohlich polaron formation due to forward scattering electron-phonon coupling. Parabolic fitting of the h-BN bands yields an effective mass enhancement of ~ 2.3, suggesting an intermediate coupling strength. Our theoretical simulations based on Migdal-Eliashberg theory corroborate the experimental results, allowing the extraction of microscopic physical parameters. Moreover,renormalisation of graphene $\pi$ band is observed due to the hybridisation with the h-BN band. Our work generalises the polaron study from transition metal oxides to Van derWaals heterostructures with higher material exibility, highlighting interlayer coupling as an extra degree of freedom to explore emergent phenomena.