Characteristic nanoscale deformation on a large-area coherent graphite moiré pattern

Abstract

Highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HoPG) is the only monoatomic crystal found to host naturally formed moir\'e patterns on its cleaved exfoliated surfaces, which are coherent over micrometers with fixed periodicities. The authors merge the idea of STM tip-induced deformation to probe $i\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}n$ $s\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}i\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}t\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}u$ the gradual nanoscale structural changes on moir\'e patterns with strain. They show the first experimental proof that one-dimensional domain walls of moir\'e patterns can laterally split into two similar to the triangular networks of one-dimensional electronic channels in domain walls, topologically protected around AA nodes. Further, domain-wall edge states are also possibly probed with spectroscopy.