title: Macroscopic self-reorientation of interacting two-dimensional crystals.
abstract: Microelectromechanical systems, which can be moved or rotated with nanometre precision, already find applications in such fields as radio-frequency electronics, micro-attenuators, sensors and many others. Especially interesting are those which allow fine control over the motion on the atomic scale because of self-alignment mechanisms and forces acting on the atomic level. Such machines can produce well-controlled movements as a reaction to small changes of the external parameters. Here we demonstrate that, for the system of graphene on hexagonal boron nitride, the interplay between the van der Waals and elastic energies results in graphene mechanically self-rotating towards the hexagonal boron nitride crystallographic directions. Such rotation is macroscopic (for graphene flakes of tens of micrometres the tangential movement can be on hundreds of nanometres) and can be used for reproducible manufacturing of aligned van der Waals heterostructures.
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Woods
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
authors.forename: F
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2638-0315
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Withers
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kozikov
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ben Shalom
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.|Institute of Microelectronics Technology and High Purity Materials RAS, Chernogolovka 142432, Russia.|National University of Science and Technology 'MISiS', Moscow 119049, Russia.
authors.forename: S V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Morozov
authors.affiliation: Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: van Wijk
authors.affiliation: Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: A
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2712-6987
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fasolino
authors.affiliation: Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: M I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Katsnelson
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba 305-0044, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3701-8119
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba 305-0044, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Taniguchi
authors.affiliation: Centre for Mesoscience and Nanotechnology, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Geim
authors.affiliation: National Graphene Institute, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mishchenko
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.|National Graphene Institute, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Novoselov
mesh_terms: D001896:Boron Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D003460:Crystallization; D004548:Elasticity; D006108:Graphite / Q000737:chemistry*; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D012399:Rotation; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D001896:Boron Compounds; C017282:boron nitride; D006108:Graphite