Modeling and Thermal Metrology of Thermally Isolated MEMS Electrothermal Actuators for Strain Engineering of 2D Materials in Air

We present electrothermal microelectromechanical (MEMS) actuators as a practical platform for straining 2-D materials. The advantages of the electrothermal actuator are its high output force and displacement for low input voltage, but its drawback is that it is actuated by generating high amounts of heat. It is crucial to mitigate the high temperatures generated during actuation for reliable 2-D material strain device implementation. Here, we implement a chevron actuator design that incorporates a thermal isolation stage in order to avoid heating the 2-D material from the high temperatures generated during the actuation. By comparing the experiment and simulation, we ensure our design does not compromise output displacement while keeping the 2-D material strain device stage cool. We also provide a simple analytical model useful for quickly evaluating different thermal isolation stage designs.