Twisted atomic layers slide spontaneously at room temperature in simulations

Researchers revealed an ultralow-barrier collective sliding mechanism mediated by domain walls, as well as defect-induced pinning of the sliding motion. They found that twisted bilayer MoS₂ moiré superlattices can undergo spontaneous long-range interlayer sliding at room temperature, while a sulfur-vacancy concentration of only about 0.1% can turn the motion into localized oscillations.