Search

Layered transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have recently attracted intense scientific and engineering interest because of their unique semiconducting and opto-electronic properties. We investigated the pressure-induced structural phase transition of layered semiconductor molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) using Raman spectroscopy and studied its metallization using infrared (IR) spectroscopy under both non-hydrostatic and quasi-hydrostatic conditions. Under quasi-hydrostatic and non-hydrostatic conditions, we found that the structural phase transition from 2 Hc stacking to 2 Ha stacking starts at approximately 16 and 21 GPa, respectively, and finishes at ∼35 and ∼41 GPa, respectively. Furthermore, the structural phase transition was followed by a semiconductor-to-metal (S-M) electronic transition. The pressure point of metallization under quasi-hydrostatic conditions is ∼5 GPa lower than that under non-hydrostatic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]