Realization of a Valley Superlattice

In a number of widely studied materials, such as Si, AlAs, Bi, graphene, MoS_{2}, and many transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers, electrons acquire an additional, spinlike degree of freedom at the degenerate conduction band minima, also known as "valleys." External symmetry-breaking fields such as mechanical strain, or electric or magnetic fields, can tune the valley polarization of these materials, making them suitable candidates for "valleytronics." Here we study a quantum well of AlAs, where the two-dimensional electrons reside in two energetically degenerate valleys. By fabricating a strain-inducing grating on the sample surface, we engineer a spatial modulation of the electron population in different valleys, i.e., a "valley superlattice" in the quantum well plane. Our results establish a novel manipulation technique of the valley degree of freedom, paving the way to realizing a valley-selective layered structure in multivalley materials, with potential application in valleytronics.