Dislocations in twistronic heterostructures

Abstract

Long-period moiré superlattices at the twisted interface of van der Waals heterostructures relax into preferential-stacking domains separated by dislocation networks. Here, we develop a mesoscale theory for dislocations in the networks formed in twistronic bilayers with parallel (P) and antiparallel (AP) alignment of unit cells across the twisted interface. For P bilayers we find an exact analytical displacement field across partial dislocations and determine analytic dependences of energy per unit length and width on orientation and microscopic model parameters. For AP bilayers we formulate a semi-analytical approximation for displacement fields across perfect dislocations, establishing parametric dependences for their widths and energies per unit length. In addition, we find regions in parametric space of crystal thicknesses and moiré periods for strong and weak relaxation of moiré pattern in multilayered twistronic heterostructures.

References in corpus (3)

• Stability of boron nitride bilayers: Ground state energies, interlayer distances, and tight-binding description
• Commensurate-incommensurate phase transition in bilayer graphene
• Commensurate-incommensurate phase transition and a network of domain walls in bilayer graphene with a biaxially stretched layer

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Analytical Model for Atomic Relaxation in Twisted Moiré Materials
• Long wavelength interdomain phonons and instability of dislocations in small-angle twisted bilayers
• Quasi-bound layer-breathing phonons inside perfect dislocations of lattice-relaxed twisted bilayers