Moiré is More: Access to New Properties of Two-Dimensional Layered Materials

Moiré superlattices have recently become excellent platforms for studying new properties of two-dimensional (2D) layered materials. With periodic moiré patterns, moiré superlattices can induce structural altering and band transformations, resulting in new phenomena including moiré phonons, moiré excitons, topological phase transition, unconventional superconductivity, or Mott insulation. With specific moiré superlattices, bilayer or trilayer 2D materials (including heterostructures) can act as excellent models gathering interlayer interactions, intralayer features, band alignments, charge transport, and other effects (such as spin-orbit coupling and splitting) in a single system. This Review introduces the origin and the modulation of moiré superlattices and summarizes several series of new properties discovered in 2D layered materials. We believe that moiré superlattices mean new access to more structures, more properties, more physics, and more opportunities for both fundamental studies and applications of 2D materials.