Moiré Superstructures as Transmission Gears for Nanosurfers Directed Motion at van der Waals Interfaces

Directed motion of nanosurfers, guided by a tribological mechanism, is demonstrated for graphene flakes embedded within a twisted graphene interface. When the flake size matches the moiré dimensions, shear-induced superstructure dynamics can anchor the flakes and drive them along directions different than the shear direction. The flake motion can be controlled via the twist angle and the sliding direction. The resulting flake dynamics exhibits two types of stick–slip motion, one at the atomic level and the other on the moiré superstructure scale. This phenomenon can be harnessed to design nanomechanical systems for targeted delivery of molecular cargo.