Title: Towards realizing twistronics on demand
Speaker: Cory R. Dean, Department of Physics, Columbia University

Abstract: The ability to isolate atomically thin crystals, such as graphene, boron nitride, and the transition metal dichalcogenides, and then mechanically layer them to form new heterostructures has driven a recent revolution in materials design. These layered structures are held together by weak van der waals forces, rather than chemical bonding making it possible to readily mix and match 2D materials spanning a wide range of properties, virtually at will. More recently it has been demonstrated that the weak interlayer coupling also makes it possible to arbitrarily tune the rotation angle between adjacent layers and that varying this twist angle can lead to dramatic transformations in electronic, optical and magnetic of the combined heterostructure. Here I will discuss our ongoing efforts to develop in-situ control with the goal towards realizing dynamically tunable “twistronics”, where twisted devices can be reconfigured and probed in real-time. I will discuss recent progress in terms of mechanical rotation of individual monolayers, improved understanding of interfacial dissipation mechanisms, implementation of in-situ feedback of twist angle and new approaches towards developing non-contact control of the heterostructure geometry at the nanoscale. Prospects for realizing a tunable quantum simulator in a solid state platform will be discussed.