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arXiv · 2508.00972

High-magnitude, spatially programmable, and sustained strain engineering of 2D semiconductors

Boran Kumral·Pedro Guerra Demingos·Peter Serles·Shuo Yang·Da Bin Kim·Dian Yu·Akhil Nair·Akshat Rastogi·Nima Barri·Md Akibul Islam·Jane Howe·Cristina H Amon·Sjoerd Hoogland·Edward H. Sargent·Chandra Veer Singh·Tobin Filleter
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Abstract

Crystalline two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors often combine high elasticity and in-plane strength, making them ideal for strain-induced tuning of electronic characteristics, akin to strategies used in silicon electronics. However, existing techniques have not achieved strain in 2D materials that is simultaneously high in magnitude (>1%), stable over long periods, and spatially programmable, meaning the strain level can be deterministically engineered across different regions of a single 2D layer. Here, we apply spatially programmable biaxial strain (e_b) up to 2.2% with spatial resolution of 0.13 %e_b um-1 in monolayer MoS2 via conformal transfer onto patterned substrates fabricated using two-photon lithography. The induced strain is stable for months and enables local band gap tuning of ~0.4 eV in monolayer MoS2, ~25% of its intrinsic band gap. We further extend the approach to bilayer WS2-MoS2 heterostructures. This strain-engineering technique introduces a new regime of strain-enabled control in 2D semiconductors to support the development of wide-spectrum optoelectronic devices and nanoelectronics with engineered electronic landscapes.

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Boran Kumral, Pedro Guerra Demingos, Peter Serles, Shuo Yang, Da Bin Kim, Dian Yu, Akhil Nair, Akshat Rastogi, Nima Barri, Md Akibul Islam, Jane Howe, Cristina H Amon, Sjoerd Hoogland, Edward H. Sargent, Chandra Veer Singh, Tobin Filleter. 2025-08-01. High-magnitude, spatially programmable, and sustained strain engineering of 2D semiconductors. https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.00972

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