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Pendharkar M, Tran SJ, Zaborski G, Finney J, Sharpe AL, Kamat RV, Kalantre SS, Hocking M, Bittner NJ, Watanabe K, Taniguchi T, Pittenger B, Newcomb CJ, Kastner MA, Mannix AJ, Goldhaber-Gordon D. Torsional force microscopy of van der Waals moirés and atomic lattices. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2314083121. [PMID: 38427599 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2314083121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2023] [Accepted: 01/11/2024] [Indexed: 03/03/2024] Open
Abstract
In a stack of atomically thin van der Waals layers, introducing interlayer twist creates a moiré superlattice whose period is a function of twist angle. Changes in that twist angle of even hundredths of a degree can dramatically transform the system's electronic properties. Setting a precise and uniform twist angle for a stack remains difficult; hence, determining that twist angle and mapping its spatial variation is very important. Techniques have emerged to do this by imaging the moiré, but most of these require sophisticated infrastructure, time-consuming sample preparation beyond stack synthesis, or both. In this work, we show that torsional force microscopy (TFM), a scanning probe technique sensitive to dynamic friction, can reveal surface and shallow subsurface structure of van der Waals stacks on multiple length scales: the moirés formed between bi-layers of graphene and between graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) and also the atomic crystal lattices of graphene and hBN. In TFM, torsional motion of an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) cantilever is monitored as it is actively driven at a torsional resonance while a feedback loop maintains contact at a set force with the sample surface. TFM works at room temperature in air, with no need for an electrical bias between the tip and the sample, making it applicable to a wide array of samples. It should enable determination of precise structural information including twist angles and strain in moiré superlattices and crystallographic orientation of van der Waals flakes to support predictable moiré heterostructure fabrication.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mihir Pendharkar
- Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
| | - Steven J Tran
- Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025
- Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
| | - Gregory Zaborski
- Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
| | - Joe Finney
- Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025
- Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
| | - Aaron L Sharpe
- Materials Physics Department, Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA 94550
| | - Rupini V Kamat
- Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025
- Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
| | - Sandesh S Kalantre
- Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025
- Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
| | - Marisa Hocking
- Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
| | | | - Kenji Watanabe
- Research Center for Electronic and Optical Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba 305-0044, Japan
| | - Takashi Taniguchi
- Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba 305-0044, Japan
| | | | | | - Marc A Kastner
- Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025
- Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
- Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
| | - Andrew J Mannix
- Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
| | - David Goldhaber-Gordon
- Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025
- Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
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