Phase Transition in a Memristive Suspended MoS2 Monolayer Probed by Opto- and Electro-Mechanics

TL;DR

This study demonstrates a phase transition in suspended MoS2 monolayers using opto-mechanical and electronic measurements, revealing memristive properties linked to a 2H-1T phase change and sulfur vacancy diffusion.

Contribution

It introduces a combined opto-mechanical and electronic approach to detect phase transitions and memristive effects in 2D MoS2 monolayers without external doping.

Findings

Memristive behavior observed without external dopants.

Mechanical softening correlates with phase transition.

Sulfur vacancy diffusion influences phase nucleation.

Abstract

Semiconducting monolayer of 2D material are able to concatenate multiple interesting properties into a single component. Here, by combining opto-mechanical and electronic measurements, we demonstrate the presence of a partial 2H-1T phase transition in a suspended 2D monolayer membrane of MoS2. Electronic transport shows unexpected memristive properties in the MoS2 membrane, in the absence of any external dopants. A strong mechanical softening of the membrane is measured concurrently and may only be related to the phase 2H-1T phase transition which imposes a 3percent directional elongation of the topological 1T phase with respect to the semiconducting 2H. We note that only a few percent 2H- 1T phase switching is sufficient to observe measurable memristive effects. Our experimental results combined with First-principles total energy calculations indicate that sulfur vacancy diffusion plays a key role in the initial nucleation of the phase transition. Our study clearly shows that nanomechanics represents an ultrasensitive technique to probe the crystal phase transition in 2D materials or thin membranes. Finally, a better control of the microscopic mechanisms responsible for the observed memristive effect in MoS2 is important for the implementation of future devices.