Room Temperature Semiconductor–Metal Transition of MoTe2 Thin Films Engineered by Strain

We demonstrate a room temperature semiconductor–metal transition in thin film MoTe2 engineered by strain. Reduction of the 2H-1T′ phase transition temperature of MoTe2 to room temperature was realized by introducing a tensile strain of 0.2%. The observed first-order SM transition improved conductance ∼10 000 times and was made possible by an unusually large temperature-stress coefficient, which results from a large volume change and small latent heat. The demonstrated strain-modulation of the phase transition temperature is expected to be compatible with other TMDs enabling the 2D electronics utilizing polymorphism of TMDs along with the established materials.