Engineering Moiré Meta-crystals with Conventional Photonic and Phononic Structures

Abstract

Recent discoveries on Mott insulating and unconventional superconducting states in twisted bilayer graphene with Moiré superlattices have reshaped the landscape of ''twistronics'' and paved the way for developing high-temperature superconductors and new devices for quantum computing and sensing. Meanwhile, artificially structured photonic and phononic metamaterials/crystals (or meta-crystals) have become a fertile playground for emulating quantum-mechanical features of condensed matter systems, revealing new routes for robust control of classical waves. Drawing inspiration from the success of twisted bilayer graphene, this perspective casts an overarching framework of the emerging Moiré photonic and phononic meta-crystals that promise novel classical-wave devices. We begin with the fundamentals of Moiré superlattices, before highlighting recent works that exploit twist angle and interlayer coupling as new ingredients to engineer and tailor the band structures and effective material properties of photonic and phononic meta-crystals. We finally discuss future directions and promises of this emerging area in materials science and wave physics.

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