Abstract
Strain fundamentally alters carrier transport in semiconductors by modifying their band structure and scattering pathways. In transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), an emerging class of 2D semiconductors, we show that mobility modulation under biaxial strain is dictated by changes in inter-valley scattering rather than effective mass renormalization as in bulk silicon. Using a multiscale full-band transport framework that incorporates both intrinsic phonon, extrinsic impurity, and dielectric scattering, we find that tensile strain enhances n-type mobility through K–Q valley separation, while compressive strain improves p-type mobility via Γ–K decoupling. The tuning rates calculated from our full-band model far exceed those achieved by strain engineering in silicon. Both relaxed and strain-modulated carrier mobilities align quantitatively with experimentally verified measurements and are valid across a wide range of practical FET configurations. The enhancement remains robust across variations in temperature, carrier density, impurity level, and dielectric environment. Our results highlight the pivotal role of strain in improving the reliability and performance of 2D TMD-based electronics.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign Materials Research Science and Engineering Center under Award DMR-2309037. The authors acknowledge the use of facilities and instrumentation supported by NSF through the University of Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center DMR-2309037. The authors also acknowledge partial support by the NSF through the Center for Advanced Semiconductor Chips with Accelerated Performance Industry-University Cooperative Research Center under NSF Cooperative Agreement No. EEC-2231625.
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S.M.T.S.A. performed all calculations, analyzed the results, and wrote the manuscript. H.L.Z. helped interpret the results and contributed to the manuscript. A.M.v.d.Z. guided the direction of the research, provided critical feedback, and contributed to the manuscript. S.R. supervised the entire project, advised on the research strategy, provided scientific guidance, and contributed to the manuscript. All authors reviewed and approved the manuscript.
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Afrid, S.M.TS., Zhao, H.L., van der Zande, A.M. et al. Strain-tunable inter-valley scattering defines universal mobility enhancement in n- and p-type 2D TMDs. npj 2D Mater Appl (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41699-026-00689-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41699-026-00689-y
