title: Pressure-induced semiconducting to metallic transition in multilayered molybdenum disulphide.
abstract: Molybdenum disulphide is a layered transition metal dichalcogenide that has recently raised considerable interest due to its unique semiconducting and opto-electronic properties. Although several theoretical studies have suggested an electronic phase transition in molybdenum disulphide, there has been a lack of experimental evidence. Here we report comprehensive studies on the pressure-dependent electronic, vibrational, optical and structural properties of multilayered molybdenum disulphide up to 35 GPa. Our experimental results reveal a structural lattice distortion followed by an electronic transition from a semiconducting to metallic state at ~19 GPa, which is confirmed by ab initio calculations. The metallization arises from the overlap of the valance and conduction bands owing to sulphur-sulphur interactions as the interlayer spacing reduces. The electronic transition affords modulation of the opto-electronic gain in molybdenum disulphide. This pressure-tuned behaviour can enable the development of novel devices with multiple phenomena involving the strong coupling of the mechanical, electrical and optical properties of layered nanomaterials.
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA [2].
authors.forename: Avinash P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Nayak
authors.affiliation: 1] Materials Research Center, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560-012, India [2].
authors.forename: Swastibrata
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bhattacharyya
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA [2] Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Materials Research Center, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560-012, India.
authors.forename: Tribhuwan
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pandey
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Changqing
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Materials Research Center, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560-012, India.
authors.forename: Abhishek K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Deji
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Akinwande
authors.affiliation: Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Jung-Fu
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Lin