Symmetry Breakdown in Franckeite: Spontaneous Strain, Rippling, and Interlayer Moiré.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 31928013.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b04536.
- No licence information is recorded for this record.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
Franckeite is a naturally occurring layered mineral with a structure composed of alternating stacks of SnS<sub>2</sub>-like and PbS-like layers. Although this superlattice is composed of a sequence of isotropic two-dimensional layers, it exhibits a spontaneous rippling that makes the material structurally anisotropic. We demonstrate that this rippling comes hand in hand with an inhomogeneous in-plane strain profile and anisotropic electrical, vibrational, and optical properties. We argue that this symmetry breakdown results from a spatial modulation of the van der Waals interaction between layers due to the SnS<sub>2</sub>-like and PbS-like lattices incommensurability.