Implementing electronic signatures of graphene and hexagonal boron nitride in twisted bilayer molybdenum disulfide

Abstract

Angeli and MacDonald reported a superlattice-imposed Dirac band in twisted bilayer molybdenum disulphide (tBL MoS2) for small twist angles towards the R_h^M (parallel) stacking. Using a hierarchical set of theoretical methods, we show that the superlattices differ for twist angles with respect to metastable R_h^M (0°) and lowest-energy H_h^h (60°) configurations. When approaching R_h^M stacking, identical domains with opposite spatial orientation emerge. They form a honeycomb superlattice, yielding Dirac bands and a lateral spin texture distribution with opposite-spin-occupied K and K’ valleys. Small twist angles towards the H_h^h configuration (60°) generate H_h^h and H_h^X stacking domains of different relative energies and, hence, different spatial extensions. This imposes a symmetry break in the moiré cell, which opens a gap between the two top-valence bands, which become flat already for relatively small moiré cells. The superlattices impose electronic superstructures resembling graphene and hexagonal boron nitride into trivial semiconductor MoS2.

Version notes

A pdf conversion problem was fixed, and the units at a figure have been corrected. SM and main article have been separated.

Content

Supplementary material

Supplementary materials for the article
This is the supplementary material as submitted. It is referenced in detail in the manuscript.