Engineering heterostrain to strongly distort moire lattices: direct imaging and transport properties, Part I

Moire superlattices in vdW heterostructures have been a popular and fruitful area of study due to the interesting physics they can exhibit. These studies usually rely on twisting layers during the stacking process to set the moire wavelength, which is a key dimension modifying electronic behavior.

Heterostrain of vdW devices offers an additional method to tune the moire wavelength, extending the range of accessible wavelengths or even altering the symmetries of the superlattice.

To explore the effects of heterostrain on moire devices, we’ve developed methods to mechanically reconfigure vdW heterostructures using microfabricated metal features which can strongly grip, slide, and stretch layers relative to each other, allowing us to substantially heterostrain devices.

In this 2 part talk, we will discuss our progress towards fabricating aligned graphene-hBN heterostructures, applying ~1% strain to the graphene layer, directly imaging the resultant extreme distortion of strained moire superlattices, and performing electronic transport characterization.