Direct Imaging Strain-field Vortex Networks in Twisted Bilayer Graphene Magnified by Moiré Superlattices

Abstract

In two-dimensional (2D) twisted bilayers, the van der Waals (vdW) interlayer interaction introduces atomic-scale reconstruction at interface by locally rotating lattice to form strain-field vortex networks in their moiré superlattice. However, direct imaging the tiny local lattice rotation of the strain-field vortex requires extremely high spatial resolution and is an outstanding challenge in experiment. Here, a topmost small-period graphene moiré pattern is introduced to magnify sub-Angstrom distortions of the lattice and tiny local lattice rotation in underlying twisted bilayer graphene (TBG). The local periods and low-energy van Hove singularities of the topmost graphene moiré patterns are spatially modified by the atomic-scale reconstruction of the underlying TBG, thus enabling real-space imaging of the strain-field vortex networks. Our results indicate that structure-reconstructed vdW systems can provide a unique substrate to spatially engineer supported two-dimensional materials both in structures and electronic properties.