Local atomic stacking and symmetry in twisted graphene trilayers

Moiré superlattices formed by twisting trilayers of graphene are a useful model for studying correlated electron behaviour and offer several advantages over their formative bilayer analogues, including a more diverse collection of correlated phases and more robust superconductivity. Spontaneous stru...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature materials 2024-03, Vol.23 (3), p.323-330
Main Authors: Craig, Isaac M., Van Winkle, Madeline, Groschner, Catherine, Zhang, Kaidi, Dowlatshahi, Nikita, Zhu, Ziyan, Taniguchi, Takashi, Watanabe, Kenji, Griffin, Sinéad M., Bediako, D. Kwabena
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/301/119/995
639/301/357/1018
639/301/930/2735
639/925/357/918/1053
Alignment
Bilayers
Biomaterials
Chemistry and Materials Science
Condensed Matter Physics
Correlation
electronic properties and materials
Graphene
imaging techniques
Interferometry
MATERIALS SCIENCE
mechanical and structural properties and devices
Nanotechnology
Optical and Electronic Materials
Reconstruction
Scanning electron microscopy
Scanning transmission electron microscopy
Superconductivity
Superlattices
Transmission electron microscopy
two-dimensional materials
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Summary:Moiré superlattices formed by twisting trilayers of graphene are a useful model for studying correlated electron behaviour and offer several advantages over their formative bilayer analogues, including a more diverse collection of correlated phases and more robust superconductivity. Spontaneous structural relaxation alters the behaviour of moiré superlattices considerably and has been suggested to play an important role in the relative stability of superconductivity in trilayers. Here we use an interferometric four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy approach to directly probe the local graphene layer alignment over a wide range of trilayer graphene structures. Our results inform a thorough understanding of how reconstruction modulates the local lattice symmetries crucial for establishing correlated phases in twisted graphene trilayers, evincing a relaxed structure that is markedly different from that proposed previously. The local layer alignment in a wide range of trilayer graphene structures has been extracted by interferometric four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy, uncovering the complex picture of lattice reconstruction in twisted trilayers.
ISSN:1476-1122
1476-4660
DOI:10.1038/s41563-023-01783-y