Twirling and spontaneous symmetry breaking of domain wall networks in lattice-reconstructed heterostructures of 2D materials

Abstract

Lattice relaxation in twistronic bilayers with close lattice parameters and almost perfect crystallographic alignment of the layers results in the transformation of moiré pattern into a sequence of preferential stacking domains and domain wall networks. Here, we show that reconstructed moiré superlattices of the perfectly aligned heterobilayers of same-chalcogen transition metal dichalcogenides have broken-symmetry structures featuring twisted nodes ('twirls') of domain wall networks. Analysing twist-angle-dependences of strain characteristics for the broken-symmetry structures we show that the formation of twirl reduces amount of hydrostatic strain around the nodes, potentially, reducing their infuence on the band edge energies of electrons and holes.

References in corpus (9)

• Atomic reconstruction in twisted bilayers of transition metal dichalcogenides
• Atomic reconstruction and moiré patterns in transition metal dichalcogenide van der Waals heterostructures
• Deep moiré potentials in twisted transition metal dichalcogenide bilayers
• Stacking domains and dislocation networks in marginally twisted bilayers of transition metal dichalcogenides
• Broken mirror symmetry in excitonic response of reconstructed domains in twisted MoSe${}_2$/MoSe${}_2$ bilayers
• Revisiting the buckling metrology method to determine the Young's modulus of 2D materials
• Piezoelectric networks and ferroelectric moiré superlattice domains in twistronic WS${}_2$/MoS${}_2$ and WSe${}_2$/MoSe${}_2$ bilayers
• Reconstruction of moiré lattices in twisted transition metal dichalcogenide bilayers
• Self-organised quantum dots in marginally twisted MoSe${}_2$/WSe${}_2$ and MoS${}_2$/WS${}_2$ bilayers

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Twisted bilayer graphene revisited: minimal two-band model for low-energy bands
• Universal Moiré Buckling of Freestanding 2D Bilayers
• Dislocations in twistronic heterostructures
• Theory of interlayer exciton dynamics in 2D TMDCs Heterolayers under the influence of strain reconstruction and disorder
• Long wavelength interdomain phonons and instability of dislocations in small-angle twisted bilayers
• Robust structural superlubricity of twisted graphene bilayer and domain walls between commensurate moiré pattern domains from first-principles calculations
• Interplay of interlayer distance and in-plane lattice relaxations in encapsulated twisted bilayers
• Chiral and Clock phases in Twisted Dipolar Clusters