Atomic relaxation and flat bands in strain-engineered transition metal dichalcogenide bilayer moir\'{e} systems

TL;DR

This study explores how strain-induced moiré patterns in transition metal dichalcogenide bilayers lead to unique structural relaxations, topological defects, and flat electronic bands, offering new platforms for quantum many-body physics.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of strain effects on moiré patterns in TMD bilayers, revealing new defect formations and flat band phenomena not previously characterized.

Findings

Strain causes uneven distribution of strain energy in moiré superlattices.

Formation of topological defects such as aster and vortex types.

Emergence of well-separated flat bands with reduced band gaps.

Abstract

Strain-induced lattice mismatch leads to moir\'{e} patterns in homobilayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). We investigate the structural and electronic properties of such strained moir\'{e} patterns in TMD homobilayers. The moir\'{e} patterns in strained TMDs consist of several stacking domains which are separated by tensile solitons. Relaxation of these systems distributes the strain unevenly in the moir\'{e} superlattice, with the maximum strain energy concentrating at the highest energy stackings. The order parameter distribution shows the formation of aster topological defects at the same sites. In contrast, twisted TMDs host shear solitons at the domain walls, and the order parameter distribution in these systems shows the formation of vortex defects. The strained moir\'{e} systems also show the emergence of several well-separated flat bands at both the valence and conduction band edges, and we observe a significant reduction in the band gap. The flat bands in these strained moir\'{e} superlattices provide platforms for studying the Hubbard model on a triangular lattice as well as the ionic Hubbard model on a honeycomb lattice. Furthermore, we study the localization of the wave functions corresponding to these flat bands. The wave functions localize at different stackings compared to twisted TMDs, and our results are in excellent agreement with spectroscopic experiments.