StrainMoire · Tuning graphene-based moiré materials with strain

The StrainMoiré project aims to advance moiré materials by experimentally studying magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene (MATBG) under controllable uniaxial strain. Despite its ubiquity, the effects of strain in moiré heterostructures are largely unexplored. Leveraging my expertise in the fabrication and the physics of moiré materials and the host group’s expertise on strain engineering, we aim to control strain and study its impact on the structural and electronic properties of MATBG. In particular, we will focus on the breaking of the symmetries of MATBG by the formation of the moiré superlattice and the applied uniaxial strain. We will fabricate MATBG on flexible substrates to study its strain-dependent properties, combining two complementary approaches. First, I will use advanced force microscopy to image strain-induced symmetry breaking in the moiré superlattice under applied uniaxial strain. Then, I will study the emergence of the nonlinear Hall effect in MATBG, enabled by strain-induced symmetry breaking, via low temperature electrical transport measurements.