Thermomechanical Engineering of Photonic van der Waals Nanomaterials

Advances in optical and optoelectronic materials define many areas of technological progress, from microelectronics and communications to sensing and metrology. Here, we will overview recent accomplishments in applying thermomechanical engineering to photonic van der Waals materials. We will show how hot pressing can induce large permanent strains in few-layer tellurium nanoflakes, making it a direct-gap semiconductor with profound blue-light photoemission. In molybdenum trioxide, phonon polaritons dispersion can be tuned by tens of percent through oxygen deprivation, as directly measured using photon-induced force microscopy. Controllable thermomechanical modification of photonic nanomaterials is a powerful technique to expand the zoo of materials for on-chip optoelectronics.