Twistronics: building moiré superlattices from 2D materials

Follow up to our previous video on van der Waals heterostructures, 2D Materials Beyond Graphene.

When ultrathin two-dimensional materials are stacked together to build designer nanomaterials, they can be twisted relative to one another, such that the atoms in each layer line up differently. This twisting, which is not possible in most present-day thin film nanotechnology, can lead to enormous changes of the material properties. The great potential on offer has given rise to a new field of scientific research termed "twistronics", which seeks to discover new functionality by taking two-dimensional materials and adding a twist.

Written and directed by Tom Lyons in collaboration with Alexander Tartakovskii's research group.

Produced by Gareth Jones, 23i.co.uk