Symmetry breaking and anomalous conductivity in a double moir\'e superlattice

TL;DR

This study uses conductive atomic force microscopy to explore symmetry breaking and local electrical properties in double moiré superlattices of twisted trilayer graphene, revealing atomic reconstruction effects and local work function variations.

Contribution

It demonstrates that cAFM can effectively visualize atomic reconstruction and symmetry breaking in double moiré superlattices, providing new insights into their electronic properties.

Findings

Observation of double moiré superlattices with two distinct periods

Detection of symmetry breaking beyond rigid models

Identification of anomalous current at 'A-A' stacking sites

Abstract

A double moir\'e superlattice can be realized by stacking three layers of atomically thin two-dimensional materials with designer interlayer twisting or lattice mismatches. In this novel structure, atomic reconstruction of constituent layers could introduce significant modifications to the lattice symmetry and electronic structure at small twist angles. Here, we employ conductive atomic force microscopy (cAFM) to investigate symmetry breaking and local electrical properties in twisted trilayer graphene. We observe clear double moir\'e superlattices with two distinct moire periods all over the sample. At neighboring domains of the large moir\'e, the current exhibit either two- or six-fold rotational symmetry, indicating delicate symmetry breaking beyond the rigid model. Moreover, an anomalous current appears at the 'A-A' stacking site of the larger moir\'e, contradictory to previous observations on twisted bilayer graphene. Both behaviors can be understood by atomic reconstruction, and we also show that the cAFM signal of twisted graphene samples is dominated by the tip-graphene contact resistance that maps the local work function of twisted graphene and the metallic tip qualitatively. Our results unveil cAFM is an effective probe for visualizing atomic reconstruction and symmetry breaking in novel moir\'e superlattices, which could provide new insights for exploring and manipulating more exotic quantum states based on twisted van der Waals heterostructures.