Theory for Lattice Relaxation in Marginal Twist Moirés
arXiv:2503.19162 · doi:10.1103/vm93-prv6
Abstract
Atomically thin moiré materials behave like elastic membranes where at very small twist angles, the van der Waals adhesion energy much exceeds the strain energy. In this ``marginal twist" regime, regions with low adhesion energy expand, covering most of the moiré unit cell, while all the unfavorable energy configurations shrink to form topological defects linked by a periodic network of domain walls. We find analytical expressions that successfully capture this strong-coupling regime for both the triangular soliton network and the honeycomb soliton network matching predictions from LAMMPS molecular dynamics simulations, and numerical solutions of continuum elasticity theory. There is an emergent universality where the theory is characterized by a single twist-angle dependent parameter. Our formalism is essential to understand experiments on a wide-range of materials of current interest including twisted bilayer graphene, both parallel and antiparallel stacked tWSe2 and tMoTe2, and any other twisted homobilayer with the same stacking symmetry.
7 + 14 pages, 4 + 12 figures
References in corpus (26)
- Signatures of Fractional Quantum Anomalous Hall States in Twisted MoTe2 Bilayer
- Abundance of correlated insulating states at fractional fillings of WSe/WS moiré superlattices
- Lattice relaxation and energy band modulation in twisted bilayer graphenes
- Origin of band gaps in graphene on hexagonal boron nitride
- Electrical switching of magnetic order in an orbital Chern insulator
- Strain fields in twisted bilayer graphene
- Tunable correlation-driven symmetry breaking in twisted double bilayer graphene
- Band structure and topological property of twisted double bilayer graphenes
- Superconductivity in twisted bilayer WSe
- Moir{é} patterns as a probe of interplanar interactions: graphene on h-BN
- Mapping twist-tuned multiband topology in bilayer WSe
- Polarization-driven band topology evolution in twisted MoTe and WSe
- Structural relaxation and low energy properties of Twisted Bilayer Graphene
- Electronic structure of spontaneously strained graphene on hexagonal Boron Nitride
- Pseudo-magnetic fields, particle-hole asymmetry, and microscopic effective continuum Hamitonians of twisted bilayer graphene
- Moire Potential, Lattice Relaxation and Layer Polarization in Marginally Twisted MoS2 Bilayers
- Phonons in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene
- Designing Moiré Patterns by Strain
- Symmetry Origin of Lattice Vibration Modes in Twisted Multilayer Graphene: Phasons vs Moiré Phonons
- Giant atomic swirl in graphene bilayers with biaxial heterostrain
- Analytical Model for Atomic Relaxation in Twisted Moiré Materials
- A New Moiré Platform Based on M-Point Twisting
- Flat and tunable moire phonons in twisted transition-metal dichalcogenides
- Analytical solution for the relaxed atomic configuration of twisted bilayer graphene including heterostrain
- Elastic Screening of Pseudogauge Fields in Graphene
- Moiré band theory for M-valley twisted transition metal dichalcogenides