Imaging moiré flat bands in three-dimensional reconstructed WSe2/WS2 superlattices
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)
- National Inst. for Materials Science, Tsukuba (Japan)
Moiré superlattices in transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) heterostructures can host novel correlated quantum phenomena due to the interplay of narrow moiré flat bands and strong, long-range Coulomb interactions. However, microscopic knowledge of the atomically reconstructed moiré superlattice and resulting flat bands is still lacking, which is critical for fundamental understanding and control of the correlated moiré phenomena. Here we quantitatively study the moiré flat bands in three-dimensional (3D) reconstructed WSe2/WS2 moiré superlattices by comparing scanning tunnelling spectroscopy (STS) of high-quality exfoliated TMD heterostructure devices with ab initio simulations of TMD moiré superlattices. A strong 3D buckling reconstruction accompanied by large in-plane strain redistribution is identified in our WSe2/WS2 moiré heterostructures. STS imaging demonstrates that this results in a remarkably narrow and highly localized K-point moiré flat band at the valence band edge of the heterostructure. A series of moiré flat bands are observed at different energies that exhibit varying degrees of localization. Our observations contradict previous simplified theoretical models but agree quantitatively with ab initio simulations that fully capture the 3D structural reconstruction. Furthermore, our results reveal that the strain redistribution and 3D buckling in TMD heterostructures dominate the effective moiré potential and the corresponding moiré flat bands at the Brillouin zone K points.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division; National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231; SC0020653; ACI-1053575; OAC-1818253
- OSTI ID:
- 1891874
- Journal Information:
- Nature Materials, Vol. 20, Issue 7; ISSN 1476-1122
- Publisher:
- Springer Nature - Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Observation of moiré excitons in WSe2/WS2 heterostructure superlattices
Dynamic Tuning of Moiré Excitons in a WSe2/WS2 Heterostructure via Mechanical Deformation