Coexistence of Reconstructed and Unreconstructed Structures in Structural Transition Regime of Twisted Bilayer Graphene

TL;DR

This study uses scanning tunneling microscopy to explore how twisted bilayer graphene transitions from rigid to reconstructed structures, revealing a coexistence regime that depends on twist angle and energy competition.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental evidence of coexistence of reconstructed and unreconstructed structures in the transition regime of TBG.

Findings

Identification of a transition regime with coexistence of structures

Demonstration of twist-angle-dependent lattice reconstruction

Insight into energy balance between stacking and elastic energies

Abstract

In twisted bilayer graphene (TBG), a twist-angle-dependent competition between interlayer stacking energy and intralayer elastic energy results in flat rigid layers at large twist angles and lattice reconstruction at small twist angles. Despite enormous scientific interest and effort in the TBG, however, an experimental study of evolution from the rigid lattice to the reconstructed lattice as a function of twist angle is still missing. Here we present a scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy study to reveal the twist-angle-dependent lattice reconstruction in the TBG. Our experiment demonstrates that there is a transition regime between the rigid regime and the relaxed regime and, unexpectedly, the reconstructed and unreconstructed structures coexist in the transition regime. The coexistence of the two distinct structures in this regime may arise from subtle balance between the interlayer stacking energy and intralayer elastic energy in the TBG with intermediate moir\'e sizes.