In situ nanoscale imaging of moiré superlattices in twisted van der Waals heterostructures.


Journal

Nature communications
ISSN: 2041-1723
Titre abrégé: Nat Commun
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101528555

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
21 Aug 2020
Historique:
received: 26 05 2020
accepted: 04 08 2020
entrez: 23 8 2020
pubmed: 23 8 2020
medline: 23 8 2020
Statut: epublish

Résumé

Direct visualization of nanometer-scale properties of moiré superlattices in van der Waals heterostructure devices is a critically needed diagnostic tool for study of the electronic and optical phenomena induced by the periodic variation of atomic structure in these complex systems. Conventional imaging methods are destructive and insensitive to the buried device geometries, preventing practical inspection. Here we report a versatile scanning probe microscopy employing infrared light for imaging moiré superlattices of twisted bilayers graphene encapsulated by hexagonal boron nitride. We map the pattern using the scattering dynamics of phonon polaritons launched in hexagonal boron nitride capping layers via its interaction with the buried moiré superlattices. We explore the origin of the double-line features imaged and show the mechanism of the underlying effective phase change of the phonon polariton reflectance at domain walls. The nano-imaging tool developed provides a non-destructive analytical approach to elucidate the complex physics of moiré engineered heterostructures.

Identifiants

pubmed: 32826888
doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-18109-0
pii: 10.1038/s41467-020-18109-0
pmc: PMC7442634
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

IM

Pagination

4209

Subventions

Organisme : DOE | Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy - U.S. Department of Energy)
ID : DE-SC0019300
Organisme : U.S. Department of Defense (United States Department of Defense)
ID : N00014-18-1-2877

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Auteurs

Yue Luo (Y)

Center for Nanoscale Systems, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.

Rebecca Engelke (R)

Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.

Marios Mattheakis (M)

John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.

Michele Tamagnone (M)

John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.

Stephen Carr (S)

Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.

Kenji Watanabe (K)

National Institute for Materials Science, Namiki 1-1, Ibaraki, 305-0044, Japan.

Takashi Taniguchi (T)

National Institute for Materials Science, Namiki 1-1, Ibaraki, 305-0044, Japan.

Efthimios Kaxiras (E)

Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.

Philip Kim (P)

Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.

William L Wilson (WL)

Center for Nanoscale Systems, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA. wwilson@cns.fas.harvard.edu.

Classifications MeSH