Electrostatic moiré potential from twisted hexagonal boron nitride layers

Dong Seob Kim^{1

2}, Roy C Dominguez³, Rigo Mayorga-Luna³, Dingyi Ye⁴, Jacob Embley^{1

2}, Tixuan Tan⁵, Yue Ni^{1

2}, Zhida Liu^{1

2}, Mitchell Ford³, Frank Y Gao^{1

2}, Saba Arash^{1

2}, Kenji Watanabe⁶, Takashi Taniguchi⁷, Suenne Kim⁸, Chih-Kang Shih^{1

2}, Keji Lai^{1

2}, Wang Yao⁵, Li Yang⁴, Xiaoqin Li^{9

10}, Yoichi Miyahara^{11

12}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics and Center for Complex Quantum Systems, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
² Center for Dynamics and Control of Materials and Texas Materials Institute, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
³ Department of Physics, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA.
⁴ Department of Physics, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA.
⁵ Department of Physics, and HKU-UCAS Joint Institute of Theoretical and Computational Physics, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
⁶ Research Center for Electronic and Optical Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan.
⁷ Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan.
⁸ Department of Photonics and Nanoelectronics, Hanyang University, Ansan, South Korea.
⁹ Department of Physics and Center for Complex Quantum Systems, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA. elaineli@physics.utexas.edu.
¹⁰ Center for Dynamics and Control of Materials and Texas Materials Institute, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA. elaineli@physics.utexas.edu.
¹¹ Department of Physics, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA. yoichi.miyahara@txstate.edu.
¹² Materials Science, Engineering and Commercialization Program (MSEC), Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA. yoichi.miyahara@txstate.edu.

PMID: 37563291
DOI: 10.1038/s41563-023-01637-7

Electrostatic moiré potential from twisted hexagonal boron nitride layers

Dong Seob Kim et al. Nat Mater. 2024 Jan.

. 2024 Jan;23(1):65-70.

doi: 10.1038/s41563-023-01637-7. Epub 2023 Aug 10.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics and Center for Complex Quantum Systems, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
² Center for Dynamics and Control of Materials and Texas Materials Institute, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
³ Department of Physics, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA.
⁴ Department of Physics, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA.
⁵ Department of Physics, and HKU-UCAS Joint Institute of Theoretical and Computational Physics, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
⁶ Research Center for Electronic and Optical Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan.
⁷ Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan.
⁸ Department of Photonics and Nanoelectronics, Hanyang University, Ansan, South Korea.
⁹ Department of Physics and Center for Complex Quantum Systems, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA. elaineli@physics.utexas.edu.
¹⁰ Center for Dynamics and Control of Materials and Texas Materials Institute, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA. elaineli@physics.utexas.edu.
¹¹ Department of Physics, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA. yoichi.miyahara@txstate.edu.
¹² Materials Science, Engineering and Commercialization Program (MSEC), Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA. yoichi.miyahara@txstate.edu.

PMID: 37563291
DOI: 10.1038/s41563-023-01637-7

Abstract

Moiré superlattices host a rich variety of correlated electronic phases. However, the moiré potential is fixed by interlayer coupling, and it is dependent on the nature of carriers and valleys. In contrast, it has been predicted that twisted hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) layers can impose a periodic electrostatic potential capable of engineering the properties of adjacent functional layers. Here, we show that this potential is described by a theory of electric polarization originating from the interfacial charge redistribution, validated by its dependence on supercell sizes and distance from the twisted interfaces. This enables controllability of the potential depth and profile by controlling the twist angles between the two interfaces. Employing this approach, we further demonstrate how the electrostatic potential from a twisted hBN substrate impedes exciton diffusion in semiconductor monolayers, suggesting opportunities for engineering the properties of adjacent functional layers using the surface potential of a twisted hBN substrate.

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References

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Electrostatic moiré potential from twisted hexagonal boron nitride layers

Affiliations

Electrostatic moiré potential from twisted hexagonal boron nitride layers

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

References

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