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Dynamic control of moiré potential in twisted WS2—WSe2 heterostructures

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Abstract

Moiré superlattices are formed by a lattice mismatch or twist angle in two-dimensional materials, which can generate periodical moiré potentials leading to strong changes in the band structure, resulting in new quantum phenomena. However, the experimental engineering of in-situ deformation of moiré heterostructures remains deficient. Here, we demonstrate a dynamic local deformation of the twisted heterostructures using a diamond anvil cell (DAC), enabling in-situ dynamic modulation of moiré potential in twisted WS2—WSe2 heterostructures at room temperature. Deformation of the twisted heterostructure increases the moiré potential, causing a red shift of the moiré exciton resonance, and observed the red shift of the intralayer exciton resonance up to 16.3 meV (less than 1.1 GPa). The blue shift of the interlayer excitons of twisted WS2—WSe2 heterostructures shows an evident transition of the pressure sensitive exciton, induced by the dominant effect of modifying the band structure on optical properties. Combined with the spectral changes of pressurized Raman, which further demonstrated that the DAC can efficiently regulate the interlayer coupling. Our results offer an effective strategy for in-situ dynamic modulation of moiré potential, providing a promising platform for the development of novel quantum devices.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 61775241), Hunan province key research and development project (No. 2019GK2233), Hunan Provincial Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (No. 2020JJ2059), the Youth Innovation Team (No. 2019012) of CSU, the Science and Technology Innovation Basic Research Project of Shenzhen (No. JCYJ20190806144418859), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 62090035 and U19A2090), and the Key Program of Science and Technology Department of Hunan Province (Nos. 2019XK2001 and 2020XK2001). The authors are also thankful for the support of the High-Performance Complex Manufacturing Key State Lab Project, Central South University (No. ZZYJKT2020-12). Z. W. L. thanks the support from the Australian Research Council (ARC Discovery Project, DP180102976).

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  1. Shaofei Li and Haihong Zheng contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physics and Electronics, Hunan Key Laboratory for Super-microstructure and Ultrafast Process, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Shaofei Li, Haihong Zheng, Junnan Ding, Biao Wu, Jun He & Yanping Liu

  2. State Key Laboratory of High-Performance Complex Manufacturing, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Shaofei Li, Haihong Zheng, Biao Wu & Yanping Liu

  3. School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Zongwen Liu

  4. The University of Sydney Nano Institute, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Zongwen Liu

  5. Shenzhen Research Institute of Central South University, Shenzhen, 518057, China

    Yanping Liu

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  1. Shaofei Li
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  4. Biao Wu
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Correspondence to Yanping Liu.

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Li, S., Zheng, H., Ding, J. et al. Dynamic control of moiré potential in twisted WS2—WSe2 heterostructures. Nano Res. 15, 7688–7694 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4579-9

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