Strain Engineering for Transition Metal Dichalcogenides Based Field Effect Transistors

Using electrical characteristics from three-terminal field-effect transistors (FETs), we demonstrate substantial strain induced band gap tunability in transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) in line with theoretical predictions and optical experiments. Devices were fabricated on flexible substrates, and a cantilever sample holder was used to apply uniaxial tensile strain to the various multilayer TMD FETs. Analyzing in particular transfer characteristics, we argue that the modified device characteristics under strain are clear evidence of a band gap reduction of 100 meV in WSe2 under 1.35% uniaxial tensile strain at room temperature. Furthermore, the obtained device characteristics imply that the band gap does not shrink uniformly under strain relative to a reference potential defined by the source/drain contacts. Instead, the band gap change is only related to a change of the conduction band edge of WSe2, resulting in a decrease in the Schottky barrier (SB) for electrons without any change for hole injection into the valence band. Simulations of SB device characteristics are employed to explain this point and to quantify our findings. Last, our experimental results are compared with DFT calculations under strain showing excellent agreement between theoretical predictions and the experimental data presented here.