Strain engineering in transition metal dichalcogenide/piezoelectric thin film heterostructures

Strain engineering has been employed as an effective methodology to tune the electrical properties of semiconductors like silicon and germanium. Likewise, for two-dimensional (2D) semiconducting materials, the effect of strain on the crystal structure has been a topic of significant interest in both electronic and optical aspects. In this work, we explore heterostructures of 2D materials with piezoelectric thin films to understand the effect of strain transfer from the piezoelectric film to the 2D material, here MoS
2
. Supported by our first principles-based density functional theory calculations, we experimentally demonstrate the tunability of electrical transport properties of MoS
2
with strain. This strategy can be useful for improving the channel conductance and mobility values of 2D materials.