Unravelling the anisotropic light-matter interaction in strain-engineered trihalide MoCl3

Layered trihalides exhibit distinctive band structures and physical properties due to the sixfold coordinated 3d or 4d transition metal site and partially occupied d orbitals, holding great potential in condensed matter physics and advanced electronic applications. Prior research focused on trihalides with highly symmetric honeycomb-like structures, such as CrI3 and alpha-RuCl3, while the role of crystal anisotropy in trihalides remains elusive. In particular, the trihalide MoCl3 manifests strong in-plane crystal anisotropy with the largest difference in Mo-Mo interatomic distances. Research on such material is imperative to address the lack of investigations on the effect of anisotropy on the properties of trihalides. Herein, we demonstrated the anisotropy of MoCl3 through polarized Raman spectroscopy and further tuned the phonon frequency via strain engineering. We showed the Raman intensity exhibits twofold symmetry under parallel configuration and fourfold symmetry under perpendicular configuration with changing the polarization angle of incident light. Furthermore, we found that the phonon frequencies of MoCl3 decrease gradually and linearly with applying uniaxial tensile strain along the axis of symmetry in the MoCl3 crystal, while those frequencies increase with uniaxial tensile strain applied perpendicularly. Our results shed light on the manipulation of anisotropic light-matter interactions via strain engineering, and lay a foundation for further exploration of the anisotropy of trihalides and the modulation of their electronic, optical, and magnetic properties.

Automated summary

Layered trihalides, such as MoCl3, exhibit strong crystal anisotropy and tunable phonon frequencies under strain engineering. This study demonstrates the anisotropy of MoCl3 through polarized Raman spectroscopy and shows that the phonon frequencies decrease with uniaxial tensile strain along the axis of symmetry and increase with strain applied perpendicularly. These findings shed light on the manipulation of anisotropic light-matter interactions via strain engineering.