Materials Research Laboratory

Strain engineering in electronics has been widely utilized over the last 20 years in most standard Si-based CMOS fabrication processes. These process-induced strain engineering techniques, engineered from the nanofabrication process itself, are simple, reliable, applied device-to-device, and highly scalable down to the nanometer scale. In this talk, I will introduce our group’s work using process-induced strain engineering in 2D van der Waals bonded materials, and how these techniques may be applied to control moiré interference in twisted or non-twisted 2D systems. Applied strain in twisted 2D bilayers allows for designable control over the size and symmetry of moiré patterns. Similarly, applied strain in as-exfoliated non-twisted 2D systems allows for engineered moiré reconstruction from strain-induced lattice mismatch between layers. These techniques provide a pathway for the high-throughput fabrication of designer 2D moiré quantum materials, bringing along all the time-tested benefits of industrial scale reliability from conventional semiconductor manufacturing.