  Lateral superlattices in 2D materials are emerging as a powerful platform for
exploring novel quantum phenomena, which can be realized through the proximity
coupling in forming moir\'e pattern with another layer. This approach, however,
is invasive, material-specific, and requires small lattice mismatch and
suitable band alignment, largely limited to graphene and transition metal
dichalcogenides (TMDs). Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) of anti-parallel (AA')
stacking order has been an indispensable building block, as dielectric
substrates and capping layers for realizing high quality van der Waals devices.
There is also emerging interest on parallelly aligned h-BN of Bernal (AB)
stacking, where the broken inversion and mirror symmetries lead to out-of-plane
electrical polarization with sign controlled by interlayer translation. Here we
show that the laterally patterned electrical polarization at a nearly parallel
interface within the h-BN substrate or capping layer can be exploited to create
non-invasively a universal superlattice potential in general 2D materials. The
feasibility is demonstrated by first principle calculations for monolayer
MoSe2, black phosphorus, and antiferromagnetic MnPSe3 on such h-BN substrate.
The potential strength can reach 200 meV, customizable in this range through
choice of vertical distance of target material from the interface in h-BN. We
also find sizable out-of-plane electric field at the h-BN surface, which can
realize superlattice potential for interlayer excitons in TMD bilayers as well
as dipolar molecules. The idea is further generalized to AB stacked h-BN film
subject to torsion with adjacent layers all twisted with an angle, which allows
the potential and field strength to be scaled up with film thickness,
saturating to a quasi-periodic one with chiral structure.
