Elastic properties of suspended multilayer WSe{sub 2}
- Scottish Microelectronics Centre, Alexander Crum Brown Road, The University of Edinburgh, King's Buildings, Edinburgh EH9 3FF (United Kingdom)
- Institute for Materials and Processes, School of Engineering, The University of Edinburgh, King's Buildings, Edinburgh EH9 3FB (United Kingdom)
We report the experimental determination of the elastic properties of suspended multilayer WSe{sub 2}, a promising two-dimensional (2D) semiconducting material combined with high optical quality. The suspended WSe{sub 2} membranes have been fabricated by mechanical exfoliation of bulk WSe{sub 2} and transfer of the exfoliated multilayer WSe{sub 2} flakes onto SiO{sub 2}/Si substrates pre-patterned with hole arrays. Then, indentation experiments have been performed on these membranes with an atomic force microscope. The results show that the 2D elastic modulus of the multilayer WSe{sub 2} membranes increases linearly while the prestress decreases linearly as the number of layers increases. The interlayer interaction in WSe{sub 2} has been observed to be strong enough to prevent the interlayer sliding during the indentation experiments. The Young's modulus of multilayer WSe{sub 2} (167.3 ± 6.7 GPa) is statistically independent of the thickness of the membranes, whose value is about two thirds of other most investigated 2D semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides, namely, MoS{sub 2} and WS{sub 2}. Moreover, the multilayer WSe{sub 2} can endure ∼12.4 GPa stress and ∼7.3% strain without fracture or mechanical degradation. The 2D WSe{sub 2} can be an attractive semiconducting material for application in flexible optoelectronic devices and nano-electromechanical systems.
- OSTI ID:
- 22489358
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 108, Issue 4; Other Information: (c) 2016 Author(s); Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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