Quantitative determination of twist angle and strain in Van der Waals moiré superlattices

Scanning probe techniques are popular, nondestructive ways to visualize the real space structure of Van der Waals moirés. The high lateral spatial resolution provided by these techniques enables extracting the moiré lattice vectors from a scanning probe image. We have found that the extracted values, while precise, are not necessarily accurate. Scan-to-scan variations in the behavior of the piezos that drive the scanning probe and thermally driven slow relative drift between probe and sample produce systematic errors in the extraction of lattice vectors. In this Letter, we identify the errors and provide a protocol to correct for them. Applying this protocol to an ensemble of ten successive scans of near-magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene, we are able to reduce our errors in extracting lattice vectors to less than 1%. This translates to extracting twist angles with a statistical uncertainty less than 0.001° and uniaxial heterostrain with uncertainty on the order of 0.002%.

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Publication Details

Journal
Applied Physics Letters
Published
2024-09-09
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0223777
Citations
2
Primary Topic
2D Materials and Applications
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.23

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article

Quantitative determination of twist angle and strain in Van der Waals moiré superlattices

Joe Finney, M. A. Kastner, Takashi Taniguchi, Kenji Watanabe et al.
2 citations
Applied Physics Letters
2D Materials and Applications
0.23
article

Quantitative determination of twist angle and strain in Van der Waals moiré superlattices

Joe Finney, M. A. Kastner, Takashi Taniguchi, Kenji Watanabe, David Goldhaber‐Gordon, Andrew J. Mannix, M. B. Hocking, Nathan J. Bittner, Aaron L. Sharpe, Mihir Pendharkar, Jan-Lucas Uslu, Steven J. Tran
article en
2 citations

Abstract

Scanning probe techniques are popular, nondestructive ways to visualize the real space structure of Van der Waals moirés. The high lateral spatial resolution provided by these techniques enables extracting the moiré lattice vectors from a scanning probe image. We have found that the extracted values, while precise, are not necessarily accurate. Scan-to-scan variations in the behavior of the piezos that drive the scanning probe and thermally driven slow relative drift between probe and sample produce systematic errors in the extraction of lattice vectors. In this Letter, we identify the errors and provide a protocol to correct for them. Applying this protocol to an ensemble of ten successive scans of near-magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene, we are able to reduce our errors in extracting lattice vectors to less than 1%. This translates to extracting twist angles with a statistical uncertainty less than 0.001° and uniaxial heterostrain with uncertainty on the order of 0.002%.

Applied Physics LettersVol. 125(11)
National Institute for Materials Science (JP), SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (US), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US), RWTH Aachen University (DE), Stanford University (US)
National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Openalex Percentile: Top 51%
2D Materials and Applications
0.23
DOISourceOpenAlex
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