Synthesis of incommensurate moiré structures with short-range-ordered charge density modulation
Moiré structures have attracted great interest for tuning emergent quantum phenomena and enabling novel device functionalities. For the twisted bilayer graphene or semiconducting transition-metal dichalcogenides, studies have been focused on ordered systems, atomically and electronically. However, disordered/short-range-ordered moiré electronic structures, likewise involving emergence of novel physical properties and functional applications, remain elusive. Here, we report an incommensurate moiré structure with short-range-ordered charge density modulation state, which is formed between monolayer metallic NiTe<sub>2</sub> and superconductor NbSe<sub>2</sub>. This state features intra-moiré-cell irregular charge orders with spontaneous on-site ordering at the moiré scale, while breaking the crystalline symmetries at the atomic scale. The short-range charge order likely originates from enhanced electron correlations driven by the cooperative effect of moiré-confined strain and localization of electron density. Furthermore, with the layers of NiTe<sub>2</sub>, we have successfully tuned the short-range state. Our findings provide a promising platform for exploring novel electronic states beyond conventional Bloch-based frameworks and potential applications in quantum devices.
Authors
- Xianghe Han
- Runnong Zhou
- Chengmin Shen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4716-9367)
- Wang Yao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2883-4528)
- Zihao Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-1434-7851)
- Haitao Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4304-9835)
- Fang Qian (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8040-3509)
- Yixuan Gao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4694-3955)
- Jiayi Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-3314-9181)
- Hui Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3369-8113)
- Hao Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0840-0995)
- Ziqiang Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7617-2886)
- Haowei Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5842-9270)
- Hui Guo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2088-0522)
- Zhilin Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3998-3557)
- Zhongyi Cao
- Yuhan Ye (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-1049-7427)
Institutions
- Boston College (US)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Hefei University (CN)
- Hefei National Center for Physical Sciences at Nanoscale (CN)
- FZU ‒ Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (CZ)
- National Science Centre (PL)
- Institute of Physics (CN)
- National Laboratory for Superconductivity (CN)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- University of Hong Kong (HK)
- University of Science and Technology Beijing (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-12-12
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66425-0
- Primary Topic
- 2D Materials and Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Basic Energy Sciences