• 文献标题:   Direct Observation of Incommensurate-Commensurate Transition in Graphene-hBN Heterostructures via Optical Second Harmonic Generation
  • 文献类型:   Article
  • 作  者:   STEPANOV EA, SEMIN SV, WOODS CR, VANDELLI M, KIMEL AV, NOVOSELOV KS, KATSNELSON MI
  • 作者关键词:   nonlinear optic, optical second harmonic generation, graphene, hexagonal boron nitride, heterostructure, alignment, commensurability
  • 出版物名称:   ACS APPLIED MATERIALS INTERFACES
  • ISSN:   1944-8244 EI 1944-8252
  • 通讯作者地址:   Univ Hamburg
  • 被引频次:   0
  • DOI:   10.1021/acsami.0c05965
  • 出版年:   2020

▎ 摘  要

Commensurability effects play a crucial role in the formation of electronic properties of novel layered heterostructures. The interest in these moire superstructures has increased tremendously since the recent observation of a superconducting state (Nature 2018, 556, 43-50) and metal-insulator transition (Nature 2018, 556, 80-84) in twisted bilayer graphene. In this regard, a straightforward and efficient experimental technique for detection of the alignment of layered materials is desired. In this work, we use optical second harmonic generation, which is sensitive to the inversion symmetry breaking, to investigate the alignment of graphene/hexagonal boron nitride heterostructures. To achieve that, we activate a commensurate-incommensurate phase transition by a thermal annealing of the sample. We find that this structural change in the system can be directly observed via a strong modification of a nonlinear optical signal. Unambiguous interpretation of obtained results reveals the potential of a second harmonic generation technique for probing of structural changes in layered systems.