Estimation of Young’s Modulus of Graphene by Raman Spectroscopy

The Young’s modulus of graphene is estimated by measuring the strain applied by a pressure difference across graphene membranes using Raman spectroscopy. The strain induced on pressurized graphene balloons can be estimated directly from the peak shift of the Raman G band. By comparing the measured strain with numerical simulation, we obtained the Young’s modulus of graphene. The estimated Young’s modulus values of single- and bilayer graphene are 2.4 ± 0.4 and 2.0 ± 0.5 TPa, respectively

Internal Thermal Stress-Driven Phase Transformation in Van der Waals Layered Materials

High pressure or strain is an effective strategy for generating phase transformations in van der Waals (vdW) layered materials without introducing defects, but this approach remains difficult to perform consistently. We present a scalable and facile method for achieving phase transformation in vdW materials, wherein solid vdW materials are subject to internal thermal stress within a molten metal mantle as it undergoes cooling. This internal thermal stress is principally the product of differential thermal expansion between mantle and core and can be tuned by the mantle material and temperature conditions. We validated this approach by achieving phase transformation of red phosphorus to black phosphorus, and metallic 1T′- to semiconducting 2H-MoTe2 crystals. We further demonstrate quantum electronic phase transformation of suppressed charge density wave in TiSe2 by means of electron–phonon coupling using the same system