High-pressure studies of atomically thin van der Waals materials

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) materials and their moiré superlattices represent a new frontier for quantum matter research due to the emergent properties associated with their reduced dimensionality and extreme tunability. The properties of these atomically thin van der Waals (vdW) materials have been extensively studied by tuning a number of external parameters such as temperature, electrostatic doping, magnetic field, and strain. However, so far pressure has been an under-explored tuning parameter in studies of these systems. The relative scarcity of high-pressure studies of atomically thin materials reflects the challenging nature of these experiments, but, concurrently, presents exciting opportunities for discovering a plethora of unexplored new phenomena. Here, we review ongoing efforts to study atomically thin vdW materials and heterostructures using a variety of high-pressure techniques, including diamond anvil cells, piston cylinder cells, and local scanning probes. We further address issues unique to 2D materials such as the influence of the substrate and the pressure medium and overview efforts to theoretically model the application of pressure in atomically thin materials.