Franckeite is a naturally occurring layered mineral with a structure composed of alternating stacks of SnS2-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 SnS2-like and PbS-like lattices incommensurability.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1908.03922,
title = {Symmetry breakdown in franckeite: spontaneous strain, rippling and interlayer moir\'e},
author = {Riccardo Frisenda and Gabriel Sanchez-Santolino and Nikos Papadopoulos and Joanna Urban and Michal Baranowski and Alessandro Surrente and Duncan K. Maude and Mar Garcia-Hernandez and Herre S. J. van der Zant and Paulina Plochocka and Pablo San-Jose and Andres Castellanos-Gomez},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1908.03922},
year = {2020}
}
Comments
6 main text figures, Supp. Info. available upon request