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.

The study was conducted by a collaborative team involving professors Zhang Jin and Shi Xinghua from the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and professor MENG Sheng from the Institute of Physics (IOP) of CAS.

The findings were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.