ÖPG-CMD Joint Meeting 2026

Tuning van der Waals heterostructures with pressure

Sep 23, 2026, 4:30 PM

30m

HS 15.06 (University of Graz)

4) Invited talk M26 - 2D Material Research in the Central Europe Region Mini-Colloquium

Speaker

Péter Makk (Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Dept. of Physics)

Description

In van der Waals heterostructures the layer distance strongly affects the interaction between the layers. Therefore, pressure is an ideal tool to engineer the band structure of van der Waals materials [1].
Here I will show examples for the versatility of this method. First, I will show, how in WSe2/Gr structures spin-orbit coupling can be boosted using hydrostatic pressure [2-4]. I will also demonstrate the effect in 2D magnetic materials, where pressure allows the tunability of both the magnetic phase diagram, both the transport processes [5]. Finally, I will demonstrate the band structure tuning of magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene [6]. The pressure has a strong effect on the flat band structure and leads to changes both superconducting and in topological states.

[1] B. Fülöp et al., Journal of Applied Physics 130, 064303 (2021)
[2] B. Fülöp et al., npj 2D Materials and Applications 5, 82 (2021)
[3] M. Kedves et al., Nano Letters., 23, 9508 (2023)
[4] Bálint Szentpéteri, et al., Phys. Rev. B 111, 205415 (2025)
[5] Albin Marffy et al., Nano Letters, 26, 5, 1782–1788 (2026)
[6] B. Szentpéteri et al., Nano Letters, 21, 8777 (2021)