Pressure-Driven Moir\'e Potential Enhancement and Tertiary Gap Opening in Graphene/h-BN Heterostructure

TL;DR

This study introduces a high-pressure technique to tune moiré potentials in graphene/h-BN heterostructures, revealing pressure-induced band structure modifications and a new tertiary gap, thus expanding the experimental control over correlated quantum states.

Contribution

We develop a high-pressure quantum transport method for moiré heterostructures, demonstrating pressure-induced enhancement of moiré potential and the first observation of a tertiary gap.

Findings

Pressure enhances moiré potential strength.

Near doubling of the primary band gap under pressure.

Observation of a tertiary gap above 6.4 GPa.

Abstract

Moir\'e superlattices enable engineering of correlated quantum states through tunable periodic potentials, where twist angle controls periodicity but dynamic potential strength modulation remains challenging. Here, we develop a high-pressure quantum transport technique for van der Waals heterostructures, achieving the ultimate pressure limit (~9 GPa) in encapsulated moir\'e devices. In aligned graphene/h-BN, we demonstrate that pressure induces a substantial enhancement of the moir\'e potential strength, evidenced by the suppression of the first valence bandwidth and the near-doubling of the primary band gap. Moreover, we report the first observation of a tertiary gap emerging above 6.4 GPa, verifying theoretical predictions. Our results establish hydrostatic pressure as a universal parameter to reshape moir\'e band structures. By enabling quantum transport studies at previously inaccessible pressure regimes, this Letter expands the accessible parameter space for exploring correlated phases in moir\'e systems.