Tuning van der Waals heterostructures and moiré materials with near-field electrostatics

Van der Waals heterostructures and moiré materials have demonstrated large tunability of their electronic and optoelectronic properties through the control of the interface, such as the local atomic registry, strain and rotation. Beyond the quantum mechanical coupling between adjacent layers, 2D materials can impact and be impacted by local electrostatic potential modulations. At typical interlayer distance of 2D-2D and 0D-2D heterostructures (3~5Å), near-field effects­–resulting from the high multipoles of the electronic density–can be dominant.

In this work, we demonstrate large and tunable near-field electrostatic effects of self-assembled organic layers and 2D materials, and develop a theory for describing and understanding of those effects. We derive analytical expressions for the in-plane potential superlattices and out-of-plane electric fields, and show their applicability in tuning the electronic structure of 2D materials and moiré structures.