Collaborative Research: DMREF: NSF-BSF: Moire-Engineered Oxide Membrane Heterostructures by Design

About This Grant

Non-technical description: Twisted oxide heterostructures are artificial materials made by stacking two or more complex oxide thin layers on top of each other with a twist angle — meaning one layer is rotated relative to the other. This twist creates a moiré pattern at the interface — a repeating interference pattern that changes the local atomic arrangement and the electronic environment. This can dramatically alter the material’s properties and create novel functionalities useful for applications. This Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF) project aims to design, create, and understand novel electronic, magnetic, and structural phases emerging in free-standing oxide membranes assembled into twisted heterostructures. The research combines advanced characterization techniques with theoretical modeling and data analytics to accelerate the discovery and development of new materials with engineered properties. The project leverages an iterative feedback loop between theory, synthesis, and characterization and involves the U.S.-Israel collaboration supported by Binational Science Foundation (BSF). Educational and outreach activities within this project are targeted at advancing workforce development through interdisciplinary training of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in integrated experimental and theoretical approaches to materials research. Technical description: This DMREF project aims to explore fundamental phenomena emerging in oxide moiré heterostructures, including structured two-dimensional polarization-vortex crystals, topological spin textures at twisted oxide interfaces, oxide flat-band systems at large twist angles, coupled quantum dot arrays, and dynamically strained interfacial electron and hole gases. The project introduces moiré periodicity and modulated intra-moiré-cell atomic registry as new design parameters in thin-film oxides. The strong interlayer coupling in oxide systems generates a strong periodic potential, enabling robust quantum states and new physical phenomena through the interplay between intrinsic oxide properties and moiré-engineered periodicity. The research combines state-of-the-art theoretical modeling approaches, advanced synthesis techniques for creating oxide membranes, and unique characterization methods, particularly Quantum Twisting Microscopy, which enables momentum-resolved spectroscopy with nanoscale spatial resolution. The education/outreach component of this project includes DMREF Workshops providing training experience for students and postdoctoral researchers, collaboration with secondary school teachers from Puerto Rico and Wisconsin to develop teaching modules incorporating DMREF principles, and integration of the undergraduate research with a First Experiences in Quantum program. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.