Tunable Electrical Performance of Few-Layered Black Phosphorus by Strain

Researchers demonstrate the strain-tunable electrical performance of few-layered black phosphorus (BP),vertically sandwiched between two metal contacts. The current?voltage (I?V) curves of BP under varying normal loads are measured within a conductive atomic force microscope (AFM). The Schottky barrier between BP and metal electrode decreases with increasing normal force, and vanishes at a critical force, leading to a transition from the nonlinear conduction to the nearly linear conduction.