Tuning 2D Material Properties by Compressive Strain

The unique properties of atomically thin layers of van der Waals (vdW) bonded crystalline solids by mechanical exfoliation or chemical synthesis have attracted significant research interests in recent years. Two key properties of these 2D materials are of particular interest to their electronic and optical functionalities: tunable band gap and charge carrier mobility/concentration. The advent of stacking (hybridizing) these 2D materials drastically further expands their functionalities into three-dimensional potentially with multiple-desired functions. Although graphene remains the focus of the 2D materials research, many other 2D and stacked 2D materials (heterostructures) have emerged including TMDs, phosphorene, silicone, among many others that remain to be explored on the periodic table. In this presentation, I will discuss strain-tuned electronic, transport, and structural properties of monolayer, multilayer, and/or stacked 2D materials including graphene, TMDs, graphene-TMD, and phosphorene at high pressures using diamond anvil cells coupled with advanced laser and synchrotron X-ray spectroscopic measurements as well as first-principles calculations [1-7].