Strain Engineering in Two-Dimensional Materials

Strain engineering in two-dimensional (2D) materials harnesses the inherent flexibility and reduced dimensionality of layers such as graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides to fine-tune their electronic, optical and mechanical characteristics. By introducing controlled deformations—whether through substrate bending, patterned indentation or thermal expansion mismatch—researchers can modulate band structures, induce phase transitions and create spatially textured potentials at the nanoscale. These effects facilitate reversible bandgap tuning, localised exciton or trion trapping and enhanced piezoelectric or magnetic responses. Emerging techniques, including polymer encapsulation and plasmonic waveguides, enable efficient strain transfer and dynamic control under ambient conditions. The resulting advances in optoelectronic crystal design, quantum emitter manipulation and high-performance flexible devices underscore the global significance of this field across applications ranging from photodetectors to quantum information platforms. Continued integration of elastic strain with heterostructure assembly promises new routes to programmable materials and adaptive nanodevices.

Research from Nature Portfolio

In monolayer MoS2 transferred onto a lateral metal–insulator–metal waveguide, a nanoscale strain gradient induced by surface plasmon polaritons enabled complete, reversible conversion of excitons to trions at room temperature through all-optical wavefront shaping. Encapsulating monolayer MoS2 within a spin-coated polymer substrate overcame slippage, achieving bandgap shifts up to 300 meV and modulation rates of 136 meV per cent strain. During 2D semiconductor synthesis, thermal expansion mismatch between substrate and WSe2 induced built-in tensile and compressive strains, driving an indirect-to-direct bandgap transition and brightening of dark excitons in bilayer and monolayer configurations. These studies exemplify scalable methods to integrate stable strain fields into device architectures.

Strain Engineering in Two-Dimensional Materials publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in strain engineering in two-dimensional materials across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Strain engineering: Deliberate mechanical deformation applied to a material to modify its structural, electronic or optical properties.

Two-dimensional material: A crystalline solid consisting of a single atomic layer with strong in-plane bonding and weak out-of-plane interactions.

Strain gradient: A spatially varying distribution of strain used to create local modulation of band structure and excitonic behaviour.

Exciton: A neutral quasiparticle formed from a bound electron–hole pair in a semiconductor.

Trion: A charged quasiparticle comprising an exciton bound to an additional electron or hole.

Bandgap: The energy difference between the valence band and conduction band that determines a semiconductor’s optical absorption and electrical conductivity.

Uniaxial and biaxial strain: Mechanical strain applied along one axis (uniaxial) or two orthogonal axes (biaxial) to tune material properties.

Photoluminescence: Emission of photons following optical excitation, used to probe electronic transitions and bandgap shifts.

References

1. Recent Progress in Strain Engineering on Van der Waals 2D Materials: Tunable Electrical, Electrochemical, Magnetic, and Optical Properties. Advanced Materials (2023).
2. Strain engineering of 2D semiconductors and graphene: from strain fields to band-structure tuning and photonic applications. Light: Science & Applications (2020).
3. Strain engineering of two‐dimensional materials: Methods, properties, and applications. InfoMat (2021).
4. Optoelectronic crystal of artificial atoms in strain-textured molybdenum disulphide. Nature Communications (2015).
5. All-optical control of high-purity trions in nanoscale waveguide. Nature Communications (2023).
6. Efficient strain modulation of 2D materials via polymer encapsulation. Nature Communications (2020).
7. Strain-engineered growth of two-dimensional materials. Nature Communications (2017).