Slidable atomic layers in van der Waals heterostructures

We report the preparation and manipulation of slidable atomic layers in clean, incommensurate van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures. Monolayer and multilayer WS 2 grains are grown on graphite and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) via chemical vapor deposition, and these grains can slide smoothly on graphite and hBN surfaces by manipulation with a tip. Furthermore, this sliding process allows the suspension, tearing, stacking, and connection of the atomic layers. These results demonstrate a novel approach for developing a wide variety of atomic-layer heterostructures with tunable interlayer coupling and an ideal system for studying the superlubricity of incommensurate, highly clean vdW contacts.