Fluctuation electrodynamics of quantum capacitance in electron bilayers
Capacitance is a thermodynamic probe of interacting electrons: it measures the energy cost of moving charge between conductors, and in low-dimensional systems this cost is shaped by exchange and correlation as much as by electrostatics. We develop a theory of the quantum capacitance of electron double layers, semiconductor quantum wells as well as monolayer and bilayer graphene devices, focusing on the contribution generated by interlayer correlations. Within a functional-integral formulation we show that the separation-dependent part of the ground-state energy is, at the level of ring diagrams, exactly the nonretarded Lifshitz expression for the van der Waals energy of two conducting sheets, with reflection amplitudes built from the layer polarizabilities. The interlayer correction to the inverse capacitance is the second density derivative of this energy: a Casimir compressibility. The zero-point fluctuations that generate Casimir forces between mirrors are here the coupled plasmons of the bilayer, and their contribution to the capacitance is obtained in closed form, with a universal coefficient; its sign shows that interlayer correlations oppose charging at high density. A Gell-Mann-Brueckner analysis gives the exact high-density limit in terms of universal functions. For graphene we find that monolayers follow the electron-gas template, while bilayer graphene is anomalous: interband screening suppresses the correction by orders of magnitude and reverses its sign in the experimentally relevant range of separations. We delineate the limits of the theory, identifying the dilute Wigner-crystal regime and electron-hole double layers near exciton condensation as regimes where the capacitance becomes a probe of interlayer pairing.