Twistronics, the New Quantum Materials Dance?

By Abdul Ahad NazakatReviewed by Louis CastelAug 29 2025

Twistronics is an approach in which researchers rotate and layer two-dimensional materials to engineer electronic behaviors. This technique involves stacking atomically thin materials like graphene at precise angles which alters their electronic properties and creates new quantum phases that don't exist in the individual layers.¹ Twistronics represents a development in condensed matter physics, changing materials science from discovery-based research to rational design of quantum materials with tailored properties. The field gained attention following the discovery that twisted bilayer graphene at "magic angles" of approximately 1.1° exhibits unconventional superconductivity and strongly correlated insulating states.²

Image Credit: ktsdesign/Shutterstock.com

This discovery showed that twist angle can control electronic properties, creating new ways to build quantum materials with specific functions.³ Key breakthroughs include superconductivity in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene, moiré excitons in transition metal dichalcogenide heterostructures, and complex multilayer structures based on twistronics.⁴ These results prove that geometric control works for engineering quantum materials.

What Are Quantum Materials and Why Do They Matter?

Quantum materials are substances where quantum effects control their large-scale properties, creating phenomena that classical physics cannot explain.⁵ These materials show unique features like protected quantum states, complex electronic structures, strong electron interactions, and quantum coherence across macroscopic distances.⁶

They matter for several key technologies. In quantum computing, topological insulators host Majorana fermions that enable fault-tolerant quantum computation with built-in error correction.⁷ For electronics, quantum materials create better-performing, lower-power devices, especially through spintronics that uses electron spin to process information. They also enable ultra-sensitive sensors that exploit quantum effects for greater precision.

Quantum materials are significant because they enable technologies that conventional materials cannot achieve, particularly where topological protection provides stability against environmental interference that normally disrupts quantum systems.

Download the PDF of the article

The Science Behind Twisting and Stacking

When two-dimensional materials are stacked with a relative twist angle θ or lattice mismatch, they form moiré superlattices with periodicities much larger than the atomic lattice. The moiré period λ follows the relationship λ = a/(2sin(θ/2)), where a represents the lattice constant.⁸ These periodic patterns create modulations in the electronic potential that reconstruct the material's band structure.

Magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene exemplifies this phenomenon. At the critical twist angle of approximately 1.1°, the system exhibits flat band formation where kinetic energy is quenched, making electron-electron interactions dominant.⁹ This leads to Van Hove singularities with enhanced density of states at specific energies, enabling unconventional superconducting pairing mechanisms and Mott-like correlated insulating behavior at particular filling factors.

The moiré superlattice modifies electronic properties through several mechanisms: interlayer hybridization creates new electronic states, band folding from the reduced Brillouin zone leads to band reconstruction, and flat band formation suppresses kinetic energy to enhance correlation effects. Recent advances have shown that strain engineering provides additional control, leading to the emerging field of "strain-twistronics" where mechanical deformation offers another degree of freedom for property tuning.¹⁰

Fabrication and Measurement Techniques

Creating these precisely controlled heterostructures requires sophisticated fabrication methods. Mechanical exfoliation using the "Scotch tape method" remains the gold standard for producing high-quality two-dimensional materials, involving repeated peeling of bulk crystals followed by substrate transfer and thickness identification through optical contrast.¹¹ Recent developments include high-throughput mechanical exfoliation techniques that significantly improve yield and scalability.

Deterministic transfer techniques enable precise positioning and stacking of materials using optical microscopy for flake location, micromanipulators for positioning, polymer stamps for material handling, and controlled inert atmosphere environments to prevent degradation.¹² Modern setups achieve twist angle control within approximately 0.5° accuracy and enable fabrication of complex heterostructures with multiple layers.¹³

Characterization relies heavily on scanning tunneling microscopy for atomic-scale visualization of moiré patterns and electronic structure mapping through spectroscopic techniques.¹⁴ Complementary techniques such as four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D-STEM) for measuring atomic reconstruction and strain, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) for mapping electronic band structures, and Raman spectroscopy for determining twist angles work together to provide a detailed view of twisted systems. Together, these methods offer a comprehensive understanding of the structure-property relationships at play.

Implications and Applications

Custom-designed quantum materials through twistronics offer unique opportunities for next-generation technologies. The ability to engineer superconductors with tunable transition temperatures and gate-controlled properties opens pathways for practical quantum devices operating under less stringent conditions than conventional superconductors.¹⁵

Topological insulators created through twisted heterostructures can host quantum spin Hall states and potentially Majorana fermion modes essential for topological quantum computation that offers built-in error protection crucial for scalable quantum computers. Additionally, moiré superlattices enable tunable semiconductors with controllable band gaps, enhanced exciton binding energies, and single photon emission capabilities vital for quantum photonics applications.

Research institutions including MIT, Columbia University, and national laboratories are actively exploring these possibilities, while companies like IBM are investigating integration pathways for quantum computing applications. The field's rapid progress has attracted significant investment from both academic and industrial sectors, recognizing the potential for disruptive technological advances.

Future Outlook

The field is expanding beyond simple bilayer systems toward complex architectures including multilayer twisted systems, heterotrilayers combining different two-dimensional materials, and three-dimensional twisted structures. These developments promise access to even richer phase diagrams and novel quantum phenomena.

Researchers continue discovering exotic quantum phases including fractional Chern insulators with topological properties at fractional filling, quantum spin liquids in twisted magnetic materials, and orbital ferromagnetism arising from spontaneous orbital ordering.¹⁶ Each discovery expands the toolkit for quantum materials design.

Integration challenges remain significant. Scalability from laboratory samples to device-relevant scales, achieving reproducible twist angles and properties, ensuring long-term stability of twisted structures, and incorporating these materials into existing device architectures all require continued development.¹⁷ Recent advances in van der Waals epitaxy show promise by enabling thermodynamically driven formation of stable moiré structures with tunable periods, potentially addressing scalability limitations.

The convergence of improved fabrication techniques, deeper theoretical understanding, and expanding applications positions twistronics as a transformative force in quantum materials science, promising revolutionary advances in quantum computing, electronics, and fundamental physics understanding.

Learn more about orbitronics here

References and Further Reading

1. Andrei, E. Y., & MacDonald, A. H. (2020). Graphene bilayers with a twist. Nature Materials, 19(12), 1265-1275. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-020-00840-0
2. Li, X., Sun, R., Wang, S., Li, X., Liu, Z., & Tian, J. (2022). Recent Advances in Moiré Superlattice Structures of Twisted Bilayer and Multilayer Graphene. Chinese Physics Letters, 39(3), 037301. https://doi.org/10.1088/0256-307X/39/3/037301
3. Sun, X., Suriyage, M., Gao, M., & Zhao, J. (2024). Twisted van der Waals quantum materials: fundamentals, tunability, and applications. Chemical Reviews, 124(1), 1-100. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemrev.3c00627
4. Guo, H., Zhang, X., & Lu, G. (2021). Moiré excitons in defective van der Waals heterostructures. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(32), e2105468118. https://doi.org/10.1073/PNAS.2105468118
5. Gruber, C., & Abdel-Hafiez, M. (2024). Interplay of Electronic Orders in Topological Quantum Materials. ACS Materials Science Au, 5(1), 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsmaterialsau.4c00114
6. Lodge, M. S., Yang, S. A., Mukherjee, S., & Weber, B. (2021). Atomically Thin Quantum Spin Hall Insulators. Advanced Materials, 33(23), 2008029. https://doi.org/10.1002/ADMA.20208029
7. Kumar, P., Kumar, R., Kumar, S., Khanna, M., Kumar, V., & Gupta, A. (2023). Interacting with Futuristic Topological Quantum Materials: A Potential Candidate for Spintronics Devices. Magnetochemistry, 9(3), 73. https://doi.org/10.3390/magnetochemistry9030073
8. Van Winkle, M., Kazmierczak, N. P., Ophus, C., Bustillo, K. C., Carr, S., Brown, H. G., Ciston, J., & Bediako, D. K. (2022). Direct Measurement of Atomic Reconstruction, Strain, and Disorder in Moiré Materials using 4D-STEM. Microscopy and Microanalysis. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1431927622006985
9. Sun, Z., & Hu, Y. H. (2020). How magical is magic-angle graphene? Matter, 2(5), 1106-1114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2020.03.013
10. Hou, Y., Zhou, J., Xue, M., Yu, M., Han, Y., Zhang, Z., & Lu, Y. (2024). Strain Engineering of Twisted Bilayer Graphene: The Rise of Strain-Twistronics. Small, 20(15), 2311185. https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202311185
11. Onodera, M., Masubuchi, S., Moriya, R., & Machida, T. (2020). Assembly of van der Waals heterostructures: exfoliation, searching, and stacking of 2D materials. Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, 59(1), 010101. https://doi.org/10.7567/1347-4065/AB5EE0
12. Gant, P., Carrascoso, F., Zhao, Q., Ryu, Y. K., Seitz, M., Prins, F., Frisenda, R., & Castellanos-Gomez, A. (2020). A system for the deterministic transfer of 2D materials under inert environmental conditions. 2D Materials, 7(2), 025025. https://doi.org/10.1088/2053-1583/AB72D6
13. Debnath, R., Sett, S., Biswas, R., Raghunathan, V., & Ghosh, A. (2021). A simple fabrication strategy for orientationally accurate twisted heterostructures. Nanotechnology, 32(39), 395302. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6528/AC1756
14. Kim, H. K., Kim, D., Lee, D. G., Ahn, E., Jeong, H., Lee, G. H., Kim, J. S., & Kim, T. H. (2022). In-situ scanning tunneling microscopy observation of thickness-dependent air-sensitive layered materials and heterodevices. Journal of the Korean Physical Society, 82(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40042-022-00692-8
15. Liu, L., Shen, C., & Yang, R. (2020). A review of experimental advances in twisted graphene moiré superlattices. Chinese Physics B, 29(10), 107307. https://doi.org/10.1088/1674-1056/abb221
16. Kononenko, O., & Matveev, V. (2021). Engineering of numerous moiré superlattices in twisted multilayer graphene for twistronics and straintronics applications. ACS Nano, 15(7), 12034-12047. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.1c04286
17. Grove-Rasmussen, K. (2022). Twist-angle two-dimensional superlattices and their application in (opto) electronics. Journal of Semiconductors, 43(1), 011001. https://doi.org/10.1088/1674-4926/43/1/011001

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the author expressed in their private capacity and do not necessarily represent the views of AZoM.com Limited T/A AZoNetwork the owner and operator of this website. This disclaimer forms part of the Terms and conditions of use of this website.