Van Der Waals Epitaxy of Soft Twisted Bilayers: Lattice Relaxation and Static Distortion Waves

Interfaces comprising incommensurate or twisted hexagonal lattices are ubiquitous and of great interest in the materials science and physics communities. Here we demonstrate 2D crystalline domains of soft block copolymers (BCPs) on patterned hard hexagonal lattices that provide fundamental insights into van der Waals heteroepitaxy. At moderate registration forces, it is experimentally found that these BCP-hard lattice incommensurate arrays do not adopt a simple Moiré superstructure, but instead adopt local structural deformations called static distortion waves (SDWs) a primary route to energy minimization.