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Title: Ferroelasticity and domain physics in two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers

Abstract

Monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides can exist in several structural polymorphs, including 2H, 1T and 1T'. The low-symmetry 1T' phase has three orientation variants, resulting from the three equivalent directions of Peierls distortion in the parental 1T phase. Using first-principles calculations, we predict that mechanical strain can switch the relative thermodynamic stability between the orientation variants of the 1T' phase. We find that such strain-induced variant switching only requires a few percent elastic strain, which is eminently achievable experimentally with transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers. Calculations indicate that the transformation barrier associated with such variant switching is small (<0.2 eV per chemical formula unit), suggesting that strain-induced variant switching can happen under laboratory conditions. Furthermore, monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides with 1T' structure therefore have the potential to be ferroelastic and shape memory materials with interesting domain physics.

Authors:
 [1];  [1]
  1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for Excitonics (CE)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1253378
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0001088
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nature Communications
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 7; Journal ID: ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; physical sciences; materials science; nanotechnology; condensed matter

Citation Formats

Li, Wenbin, and Li, Ju. Ferroelasticity and domain physics in two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.1038/ncomms10843.
Li, Wenbin, & Li, Ju. Ferroelasticity and domain physics in two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10843
Li, Wenbin, and Li, Ju. Wed . "Ferroelasticity and domain physics in two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10843. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1253378.
@article{osti_1253378,
title = {Ferroelasticity and domain physics in two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers},
author = {Li, Wenbin and Li, Ju},
abstractNote = {Monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides can exist in several structural polymorphs, including 2H, 1T and 1T'. The low-symmetry 1T' phase has three orientation variants, resulting from the three equivalent directions of Peierls distortion in the parental 1T phase. Using first-principles calculations, we predict that mechanical strain can switch the relative thermodynamic stability between the orientation variants of the 1T' phase. We find that such strain-induced variant switching only requires a few percent elastic strain, which is eminently achievable experimentally with transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers. Calculations indicate that the transformation barrier associated with such variant switching is small (<0.2 eV per chemical formula unit), suggesting that strain-induced variant switching can happen under laboratory conditions. Furthermore, monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides with 1T' structure therefore have the potential to be ferroelastic and shape memory materials with interesting domain physics.},
doi = {10.1038/ncomms10843},
journal = {Nature Communications},
number = ,
volume = 7,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Feb 24 00:00:00 EST 2016},
month = {Wed Feb 24 00:00:00 EST 2016}
}

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