Signatures of twisted bilayers in MoSe2/WSe2 heterostructures

The weak interlayer bonding in van der Waals heterostructures offers opportunities to tune their properties not only through deliberate composition changes, but also by altering the registry between layers. In this work, we systematically study the effects of finite twist angles on transition-metal dichalcogenide bilayers of MoSe2/WSe2 using first-principles calculations. The twisting of these bilayers breaks local symmetry and thus alters their electronic band structures. We suggest that the effects of twisting may be experimentally observed in Hall and scanning tunneling microscopy experiments and that the twist in these bilayers can be used as an effective mechanism to control charge carriers in future electronic devices.