Formation of ripples in atomically thin MoS 2 and local strain engineering of electrostatic properties

Ripple is a common deformation in two-dimensional materials due to localized strain, which is expected to greatly influence the physical properties. The effects of the ripple deformation in the MoS 2 layer on their physics, however, are rarely addressed experimentally. We here grow atomically thin MoS 2 nanostructures by employing a vapor phase deposition method without any catalyst and observed the ripples in MoS 2 nanostructures. The MoS 2 ripples exhibit quasi-periodical ripple structures in the MoS 2 surface. The heights of the ripples vary from several angstroms to tens of nanometers and the wavelength is in the range of several hundred nanometers. The growth mechanism of rippled MoS 2 nanostructures is elucidated. We have also simultaneously investigated the electrostatic properties of MoS 2 ripples by using Kelvin probe force microscopy, which shows inhomogeneous surface potential and charge distribution...

Siwei Luo, Guolin Hao, Yinping Fan, Liangzhi Kou, Chaoyu He, Xiang Qi, Chao Tang, Jin Li, Kai Huang and Jianxin Zhong

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