2014/08/29 by Hanyu Zhu, Yuan Wang, Zhu, Hanyu +15
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced MEMS and NEMS Technologies #Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials #FOS: Physical sciences #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1408.7074
arxiv created 2014/08/29 · openalex publication_date 2014/08/29 · arxiv updated 2014/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Piezoelectricity offers precise and robust conversion between electricity and mechanical force. Here we report the first experimental evidence of piezoelectricity in a single layer of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) crystal as a result of inversion symmetry breaking of the atomic structure, with measured piezoelectric coefficient e11 = 2.9e-10 C/m. Through the angular dependence of electro-mechanical coupling, we uniquely determined the two-dimensional (2D) crystal orientation. We observed that only MoS2 membranes with odd number of layers exhibited piezoelectricity, in sharp contrast to the conventional materials. The piezoelectricity discovered in single molecular membrane promises scaling down of nano-electro-mechanical systems (NEMS) to single atomic unit cell - the ultimate material limit.