The quantum twisting microscope

A. Inbar, J. Birkbeck (), J. Xiao, T. Taniguchi, K. Watanabe, B. Yan, Y. Oreg, Ady Stern, E. Berg and S. Ilani
Additional contact information
A. Inbar: Weizmann Institute of Science
J. Birkbeck: Weizmann Institute of Science
J. Xiao: Weizmann Institute of Science
T. Taniguchi: National Institute for Materials Science, 1‐1 Namiki
K. Watanabe: National Institute for Materials Science, 1‐1 Namiki
B. Yan: Weizmann Institute of Science
Y. Oreg: Weizmann Institute of Science
Ady Stern: Weizmann Institute of Science
E. Berg: Weizmann Institute of Science
S. Ilani: Weizmann Institute of Science

Nature, 2023, vol. 614, issue 7949, 682-687

Abstract: Abstract The invention of scanning probe microscopy revolutionized the way electronic phenomena are visualized1. Whereas present-day probes can access a variety of electronic properties at a single location in space2, a scanning microscope that can directly probe the quantum mechanical existence of an electron at several locations would provide direct access to key quantum properties of electronic systems, so far unreachable. Here, we demonstrate a conceptually new type of scanning probe microscope—the quantum twisting microscope (QTM)—capable of performing local interference experiments at its tip. The QTM is based on a unique van der Waals tip, allowing the creation of pristine two-dimensional junctions, which provide a multitude of coherently interfering paths for an electron to tunnel into a sample. With the addition of a continuously scanned twist angle between the tip and sample, this microscope probes electrons along a line in momentum space similar to how a scanning tunnelling microscope probes electrons along a line in real space. Through a series of experiments, we demonstrate room-temperature quantum coherence at the tip, study the twist angle evolution of twisted bilayer graphene, directly image the energy bands of monolayer and twisted bilayer graphene and, finally, apply large local pressures while visualizing the gradual flattening of the low-energy band of twisted bilayer graphene. The QTM opens the way for new classes of experiments on quantum materials.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05685-y Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:614:y:2023:i:7949:d:10.1038_s41586-022-05685-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05685-y

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().