2020/09/16 by Emil Annevelink, Harley T. Johnson, Harley Johnson +1 · 21 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Materials Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Electron Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Classical mechanics #Condensed matter physics #Dislocation #Dislocation creep #Geometry #Graphene research and applications #Materials science #Mathematics #Peierls stress #Physics #Stacking #Statistical physics #Superlattice #Surface and Thin Film Phenomena #Twist #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.102.184107
published in Physical review. B./Physical review. B 102(18) (American Physical Society)
arxiv created 2020/09/16 · openalex publication_date 2020/11/12 · arxiv updated 2020/11/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We develop a continuum dislocation description of twist and stretch moir'e superlattices in two-dimensional material bilayers. The continuum formulation is based on the topological constraints introduced by the periodic dislocation network associated with the moir'e structure. The approach is based on solving analytically for the structural distortion and displacement fields that satisfy the topological constraints and that minimize the total energy. The total energy is described by both the strain energy of each individual distorted layer and a Peierls-Nabarro-like interfacial contribution arising from stacking disregistry. The dislocation core emerges naturally within the formalism as a result of the competition between the two contributions. The approach presented here captures the structure and energetics of twist and stretch moir'e superlattices of dislocations with arbitrary direction and character, without assuming an analytical solution a priori and while accounting naturally for dislocation-dislocation image interactions. In comparisons to atomistic simulations using classical potentials, the maximum structure deviation is 6%, while the maximum line energy deviation is 0.019 eV/\AA. Several applications of our model are shown, including predicting the variation of structure with twist angle and describing dislocation line tension and junction energies.