Strainoptronics: A new way to control photons

Science Daily  June 22, 2020 2D materials have scientific and technologically relevant properties for photodetectors. But they do not operate efficiently at telecommunication wavelengths. However, they are particularly promising candidates for strain engineering because they can withstand larger amounts of strain before rupture. An international team of researchers (USA – George Washington University, University of Minnesota, UT Austin, University of Pennsylvania, Belgium) stretched an ultrathin layer of molybdenum telluride on top of a silicon photonic waveguide to assemble a novel photodetector. They used the newly created strainoptronics “control knob” to alter its physical properties to shrink the electronic bandgap, allowing […]

A new platform to stretch 2D materials

Nanowerk  June 17, 2020 As the electronic and optical properties of 2D materials can be controlled by mechanical deformations of their crystal structure, strain engineering can be used to modify their electronic properties. Researchers in Spain have developed thermal strain actuators on top of polypropylene substrates to control the biaxial strain in atomically thin MoS2 layers. The actuators can reach a maximum biaxial strain of 0.64 % and reliably modulated at frequencies up to 8 Hz. The strain levels can be varied all the way from 0% to 0.6% with a negligible spatial drift. They demonstrated the operation of the […]