In situ manipulation of van der Waals heterostructures for twistronics
Yaping Yang, Jidong Li, Jun Yin, Shuigang Xu, Ciaran Mullan, Takashi Taniguchi, Kenji Watanabe, A. K. Geǐm, Novoselov, Konstantin, Mishchenko, Artem; id_orcid 0000-0002-0427-5664
Abstract
In van der Waals heterostructures, electronic bands of two-dimensional (2D) materials, their nontrivial topology, and electron-electron interactions can be dramatically changed by a moiré pattern induced by twist angles between different layers. Such process is referred to as twistronics, where the tuning of twist angle can be realized through mechanical manipulation of 2D materials. Here we demonstrate an experimental technique that can achieve in situ dynamical rotation and manipulation of 2D materials in van der Waals heterostructures. Using this technique we fabricated heterostructures where graphene is perfectly aligned with both top and bottom encapsulating layers of hexagonal boron nitride. Our technique enables twisted 2D material systems in one single stack with dynamically tunable optical, mechanical, and electronic properties.