Emerging Chirality and Moiré Dynamics in Twisted Layered Material Heterostructures

Moiré superstructures arising at twisted 2D interfaces
have
recently attracted the attention of the scientific community due to
exotic quantum states and unique mechanical and tribological behaviors
that they exhibit. Here, we predict the emergence of chiral distortions
in twisted layered interfaces of finite dimensions. This phenomenon
originates in intricate interplay between interfacial interactions
and contact boundary constraints. A metric termed the fractional chiral
area is introduced to quantify the overall chirality of the moiré
superstructure and to characterize its spatial distribution. Despite
the equilibrium nature of the discovered energetic and structural
chirality effects, they are shown to be manifested in the twisting
dynamics of layered interfaces, which demonstrates a continuous transition
from stick–slip to smooth rotation with no external trigger.