We demonstrate a room temperature semiconductor-metal transition in thin film MoTe2 engineered by strain. Reduction of the 2H-1T' phase transition temperature of MoTe2 to room temperature was realized by introducing a tensile strain of 0.2%. The observed first-order SM transition improved conductance ∼10 000 times and was made possible by an unusually large temperature-stress coefficient, which results from a large volume change and small latent heat. The demonstrated strain-modulation of the phase transition temperature is expected to be compatible with other TMDs enabling the 2D electronics utilizing polymorphism of TMDs along with the established materials.

Recent work has demonstrated excellent p-type field-effect switching in exfoliated black phosphorus, but type control has remained elusive. Here, we report unipolar n-type black phosphorus transistors with switching polarity control via contact-metal engineering and flake thickness, combined with oxygen and moisture-free fabrication. With aluminium contacts to black phosphorus, a unipolar to ambipolar transition occurs as flake thickness increases from 3 to 13 nm. The 13-nm aluminium-contacted flake displays graphene-like symmetric hole and electron mobilities up to 950 cm2 V−1 s−1 at 300 K, while a 3 nm flake displays unipolar n-type switching with on/off ratios greater than 105 (107) and electron mobility of 275 (630) cm2 V−1 s−1 at 300 K (80 K). For palladium contacts, p-type behaviour dominates in thick flakes, while 2.5–7 nm flakes have symmetric ambipolar transport. These results demonstrate a leap in n-type performance and exemplify the logical switching capabilities of black phosphorus.

Doping two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors beyond their degenerate levels provides the opportunity to investigate extreme carrier density-driven superconductivity and phase transition in 2D systems. Chemical functionalization and the ionic gating have achieved the high doping density, but their effective ranges have been limited to ∼1 nm, which restricts the use of highly doped 2D semiconductors. Here, we report on electron diffusion from the 2D electride [CaN]·e to MoTe over a distance of 100 nm from the contact interface, generating an electron doping density higher than 1.6 × 10 cm and a lattice symmetry change of MoTe as a consequence of the extreme doping. The long-range lattice symmetry change, suggesting a length scale surpassing the depletion width of conventional metal-semiconductor junctions, was a consequence of the low work function (2.6 eV) with highly mobile anionic electron layers of [CaN]·e. The combination of 2D electrides and layered materials yields a novel material design in terms of doping and lattice engineering.