Domain-dependent surface adhesion in twisted few-layer graphene

ORAL

Abstract

Twisted van der Waals heterostructures are a highly tunable platform due to the many degrees of freedom available for controlling their electronic and chemical properties. Here, we focus on the local stacking order of low-degree twisted graphene heterostructures as a platform for manipulating the surface chemistry of this class of materials. We report the emergence and engineering of stacking domain-dependent surface adhesion in twisted few-layer graphene. Minimally twisted double bi- and tri-layer graphene heterostructures were fabricated and imaged using mid-infrared near-field optical microscopy and atomic force microscopy to identify rhombohedral and Bernal stacking domains. We then observed that metallic nanoparticles and liquid water exhibit a domain-selective adhesion on these heterostructures, with preference for the rhombohedral stacking configurations. Finally, we used an atomic force microscope to manipulate nanoparticles located at certain stacking domains, resulting in a local reconfiguration of the moiré superlattice near the nanoparticles at the μm-scale. Our findings establish a new approach to controlling moiré chemistry and nanoengineering.

*Nano-optical experiments at Columbia are supported as part of Programmable Quantum Materials, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences (BES), under award DE-SC0019443. Research on moiré structures at Columbia and Harvard is supported by ARO MURI: ARO(W911NF2120147). The development of nano-optical methods is supported by the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship ONR-VB: N00014-191-2630 (DNB). D.N.B. is Moore Investigator in Quantum Materials EPIQS GBMF9455. Work at Cornell was supported by the Cornell Center for Materials Research with funding from the NSF MRSEC program (DMR-1719875) and by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s EPiQS Initiative, Grant GBMF10436 to Eun-Ah Kim. D.H. is supported by a grant from the Simons Foundation (579913). M.P. is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) through the Early Postdoc.Mobility program (Grant No. P2ELP2191706). The work of E.K., Z.Z., M.P., G.R.S., M.A. and E.K. is supported in part by the STC Center for Integrated Quantum Materials, NSF Grant No. DMR-1231319 and the NSF Award No. DMR-1922172.

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Publication: Domain-dependent surface adhesion in twisted few-layer graphene: Platform for moiré-assisted chemistry (submitted, arXiv preprint)

Presenters

  • Valerie Hsieh

    • Columbia University

Authors

  • Valerie Hsieh

    • Columbia University

  • Dorri Halbertal

    • Columbia Univ

  • Nathan R Finney

    • Columbia Univ

  • Ziyan Zhu

    • Stanford University

  • Eli Gerber

    • Cornell University

  • Michele Pizzochero

    • Harvard
    • Harvard University

  • Emine Kucukbenli

    • Harvard University

  • Gabriel R Schleder

    • Harvard University

  • Mattia Angeli

    • Harvard University

  • Kenji Watanabe

    • National Institute for Materials Science
    • Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute of Materials Science
    • Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba 305-044, Japan
    • NIMS
    • Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute for Materials Science
    • National Institute for Materials Science, Japan
    • Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan
    • NIMS Japan

  • Takashi Taniguchi

    • National Institute for Materials Science
    • Kyoto Univ
    • International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute of Materials Science
    • Kyoto University
    • International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba 305-044, Japan
    • International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science
    • National Institute for Materials Science, Japan
    • National Institute For Materials Science
    • NIMS
    • National Institute for Material Science
    • International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan
    • NIMS Japan

  • Eun-Ah Kim

    • Cornell University

  • Efthimios Kaxiras

    • Harvard University

  • James C Hone

    • Columbia University

  • Cory R Dean

    • Columbia Univ
    • Columbia University

  • Dmitri N Basov

    • Columbia University
    • Department of Physics, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA