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  • <i>In Situ</i>Gas-Cell Electron Microscopy Reveals Pressure-Selected Restructuring Pathways in AuRu Ammonia Catalysts JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY McKeown-Green, A. S., Moradifar, P., Zhang, Z., Lim, C., Barnum, A., Yuan, L., Sinclair, R., Abild-Pedersen, F., Ophus, C., Dionne, J. A. 2026
  • Atomic-Scale Moiré and Electronic Structure Analysis of Twisted Epitaxial MoS2-Au-MoS2 Heterostructures. Nano letters Cui, Y., Xu, K., Ren, P., Yuan, L., Czaja, P., Barnum, A., Sarkar, P., Altman, A., Bustillo, K., Kundu, S., Ramdas, A., Wang, X., Wan, G., Wang, Y., Wang, J., Song, C., Lim, C., Zheng, Q., Yao, H., Heinz, T., Hwang, H. Y., Majumdar, A., Dionne, J. A., Ophus, C., da Jornada, F. H., Sinclair, R., Cui, Y. 2026

    Abstract

    Twisted epitaxy enables precise orientation control of nanostructures confined within van der Waals (vdW) gaps. Here, we investigate the moiré and electronic structure of a representative twisted epitaxial system, where Au nanodiscs are grown inside twisted bilayer MoS2 with a 6° interlayer twist, inducing a 3° symmetrical misalignment of Au relative to each MoS2 layer (MoS2-Au-MoS2). Using multislice electron ptychography (MEP), we resolve the three-dimensional "moiré-of-moirés" structure of MoS2-Au-MoS2 with atomic resolution. Electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) shows that MoS2 encapsulation significantly reduces the plasmon energy of Au nanodiscs compared with their unencapsulated counterparts. Furthermore, first-principles calculations reveal that Au insertion alters the electronic band alignment near the Fermi level of bilayer MoS2. Our results introduce a twisted MoS2-Au-MoS2 heterostructure as a structurally and electronically rich material system and establish twisted epitaxy as a new strategy for moiré engineering and the synthesis of 2D-confined materials with tunable optoelectronic properties.

    View details for DOI 10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c04205

    View details for PubMedID 41705938