Electronic Properties in Strained and Suspended Sheet of MoS₂ on Anodized Aluminum Oxide.

Two-dimensional materials are as thin as physically possible and have tunable electronic properties that can be useful for the development of faster and smaller electronic devices. One way to tune the electronic properties of 2-D materials is to induce strain by deforming the lattice. In addition to strain impact on the electronic properties, a suspended sheet of 2-D material exhibits higher electrical conductivity. In this project, I induce strain by deforming a semiconductor, MoS₂, lattice with a nanopatterned substrate, and characterize the strain by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Raman spectroscopy. Here I present the results of patterning strain and suspension into MoS₂, and their impact on the electronic properties of MoS₂. Single layer MoS₂ is isolated via mechanical exfoliation and transferred onto anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) - a substrate with nanoscale valleys and hills. The average strain in the MoS₂ sheet is 0.23% and 0.29%, which obtained from the Raman spectroscopy and AFM data, respectively. AFM techniques such as KPFM, C-AFM, and TERS are used in this project to characterize the electronic properties in the strain-textured MoS₂.