Researchers have developed a method to increase the tensile plasticity of bulk layered van der Waals crystals by up to 360% through controlled interlayer moiré twisting, according to a study published in Nature Materials on August 31, 2026. The technique enabled ternary bulk crystals of GaGeTe to reach 30% macroscopic tensile strain along the a–b plane at room temperature.
The process introduces interlayer moiré twisting across a range of angles commensurate with crystal translational symmetry through simple off-axis compression. As mechanical loading increases, the moiré twist angles widen, facilitating stress relaxation. Because the physical twisting takes place exclusively between layers, it causes negligible changes to in-plane electronic properties.
In situ transmission electron microscopy of GaGeTe revealed moiré patterns starting at small angles around 1.5° during early deformation and expanding to angles such as 6.0° at higher strains. The study analyzed twist-stacked configurations across angles including 1.47°, 5.09°, 6.01°, 7.34°, 9.43°, 13.17°, and 21.79°, while electron microscopy identified ripplocations that confirm interlayer slipping accommodates the plastic deformation.
The research team—including equal contributors Jiali Zhou, Jiawei Zou, and Zhiqiang Gao from the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Zhejiang University—also applied off-axis compression to GaS, GaSe, InSe, CrSiTe3, InSiTe3, and SnBi2Te4 single crystals, recording enhanced room-temperature tensile plasticity across each bulk material.
