High
pressure or strain is an effective strategy for generating
phase transformations in van der Waals (vdW) layered materials without
introducing defects, but this approach remains difficult to perform
consistently. We present a scalable and facile method for achieving
phase transformation in vdW materials, wherein solid vdW materials
are subject to internal thermal stress within a molten metal mantle
as it undergoes cooling. This internal thermal stress is principally
the product of differential thermal expansion between mantle and core
and can be tuned by the mantle material and temperature conditions.
We validated this approach by achieving phase transformation of red
phosphorus to black phosphorus, and metallic 1T′- to semiconducting
2H-MoTe2 crystals. We further demonstrate quantum electronic
phase transformation of suppressed charge density wave in TiSe2 by means of electron–phonon coupling using the same
system.