Manipulating Moirés by Controlling Heterostrain in van der Waals Devices

Abstract

Van der Waals (vdW) moirés offer tunable superlattices that can strongly manipulate electronic properties. We demonstrate the in situ manipulation of moiré superlattices via heterostrain control in a vdW device. By straining a graphene layer relative to its hexagonal boron nitride substrate, we modify the shape and size of the moiré. Our sliding-based technique achieves uniaxial heterostrain values exceeding 1%, resulting in distorted moirés values that are larger than those achievable without strain. The stretched moiré is evident in transport measurements, resulting in shifted superlattice resistance peaks and Landau fans, consistent with an enlarged superlattice unit cell. Electronic structure calculations reveal how heterostrain shrinks and distorts the moiré Brillouin zone, resulting in a reduced electronic bandwidth as well as the appearance of highly anisotropic and quasi-one-dimensional Fermi surfaces. Our heterostrain control approach opens a wide parameter space of moiré lattices to explore beyond what is possible by twist angle control alone.

Keywords: electronic transport; graphene; heterostrain; hexagonal boron nitride; moirés; van der Waals materials.