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Engineering thermal strain is crucial for tuning the properties and functionalities of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). Thermal strain arises from the thermal expansion coefficient (TEC) mismatch between TMDs and substrates, but conventional substrates often induce inhomogeneous broadening in the electronic structure, mainly due to surface roughness and charged impurities. Here, we demonstrate uniform thermal strain in monolayer WSe2 via van der Waals epitaxy on graphene/SiC(0001) substrates. Compared to WSe2 grown on graphite, its photoluminescence peaks show a redshift and line width narrowing of about 30%. These results suggest that uniform tensile strain is introduced to WSe2 due to the small TEC of SiC, and interfacial graphene suppresses the inhomogeneous broadening. Furthermore, tensile-strained monolayer MoS2 grown on graphene/SiC exhibits enhanced catalytic activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction. Our findings highlight the potential of the graphene/SiC substrate as a platform for improved strain engineering in TMDs, enabling future applications in electronics, optoelectronics, and electrocatalysis.

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• In Copyright
  

  This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Nano Letters, copyright © 2025 American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c02492.

Keyword: transition metal dichalcogenide, graphene/SiC, van der Waals epitaxy, strain engineering, photoluminescence, hydrogen evolution reaction

Date published: 2025-08-27

Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)

Journal:

• Nano Letters (ISSN: 15306984) vol. 25 issue. 34 p. 12851-12858

Funding:

• Fusion Oriented REsearch for disruptive Science and Technology JPMJFR213X
• Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
• Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology JPMJCR23A4
• Tatematsu Foundation
• ACT-X JPMJAX23DH
• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science JP21H05232
• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science JP21H05234
• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science JP22H00280
• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science JP22H00283
• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science JP22H04957
• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science JP22KJ1535
• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science JP24H00044
• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science JP24H01189
• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science JP24K01347
• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science JP24K17708
• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science JP25H00835
• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science JP25K17917
• Japan Science and Technology Agency
• Research Foundation for the Electrotechnology of Chubu
• Fusion Oriented REsearch for disruptive Science and Technology JPMJFR203K

Manuscript type: Author's version (Accepted manuscript)

MDR DOI: https://doi.org/10.48505/nims.5679

First published URL: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c02492

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Updated at: 2025-08-28 13:36:01 +0900

Published on MDR: 2026-08-06 08:26:22 +0900