Imaging moiré flat bands in three-dimensional reconstructed WSe2/WS2 superlattices

Li, Hongyuan; Li, Shaowei; Naik, Mit H.; Xie, Jingxu; Li, Xinyu; Wang, Jiayin; Regan, Emma; Wang, Danqing; Zhao, Wenyu; Zhao, Sihan; Kahn, Salman; Yumigeta, Kentaro; Blei, Mark; Taniguchi, Takashi; Watanabe, Kenji; Tongay, Sefaattin; Zettl, Alex; Louie, Steven G.; Wang, Feng; Crommie, Michael F.

doi:10.1038/s41563-021-00923-6

Imaging moiré flat bands in three-dimensional reconstructed WSe₂/WS₂ superlattices

Journal Article · Mon Feb 08 00:00:00 EST 2021 · Nature Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-021-00923-6· OSTI ID:1891874

Li, Hongyuan ^[1]; ^[1]; Naik, Mit H. ^[1]; Xie, Jingxu ^[2]; ^[2]; Wang, Jiayin ^[2]; Regan, Emma ^[1]; Wang, Danqing ^[2]; Zhao, Wenyu ^[2]; ^[2]; ^[1]; Yumigeta, Kentaro ^[3]; Blei, Mark ^[3]; Taniguchi, Takashi ^[4]; ^[4]; Tongay, Sefaattin ^[3]; Zettl, Alex ^[1]; ^[1]; ^[1]; ^[1]

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.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences; National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231; SC0020653

OSTI ID:: 1891874

Journal Information:: Nature Materials, Journal Name: Nature Materials Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 20; ISSN 1476-1122

Publisher:: Springer Nature - Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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