Electrons surf phason waves in moiré bilayers
File(s)acs.nanolett.3c00490.pdf (4.71 MB)
Published version
Author(s)
Maity, Indrajit
Mostofi, Arash A
Lischner, Johannes
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
We investigate the effect of thermal fluctuations on the atomic and electronic structure of a twisted MoSe2/WSe2 heterobilayer using a combination of classical molecular dynamics and ab initio density functional theory calculations. Our calculations reveal that thermally excited phason modes give rise to an almost rigid motion of the moiré lattice. Electrons and holes in low-energy states are localized in specific stacking regions of the moiré unit cell and follow the thermal motion of these regions. In other words, charge carriers surf phason waves that are excited at finite temperatures. We also show that such surfing survives in the presence of a substrate and frozen potential. This effect has potential implications for the design of charge and exciton transport devices based on moiré materials.
Date Issued
2023-06-14
Date Acceptance
2023-05-01
Citation
Nano Letters: a journal dedicated to nanoscience and nanotechnology, 2023, 23 (11), pp.4870-4875
ISSN
1530-6984
Publisher
American Chemical Society
Start Page
4870
End Page
4875
Journal / Book Title
Nano Letters: a journal dedicated to nanoscience and nanotechnology
Volume
23
Issue
11
Copyright Statement
© 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society. This work is published under a CC BY licence.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37235740
Subjects
electrons
moiré materials
phason
sliding
surfing
temperature-dependent properties
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
United States
Date Publish Online
2023-05-26