  Hydrostatic pressure applied using diamond anvil cells (DAC) has been widely
explored to modulate physical properties of materials by tuning their lattice
degree of freedom. Independently, electrical field is able to tune the
electronic degree of freedom of functional materials via, for example, the
field-effect transistor (FET) configuration. Combining these two orthogonal
approaches would allow discovery of new physical properties and phases going
beyond the known phase space. Such experiments are, however, technically
challenging and have not been demonstrated. Herein, we report a feasible
strategy to prepare and measure FETs in a DAC by lithographically patterning
the nanodevices onto the diamond culet. Multiple-terminal FETs were fabricated
in the DAC using few-layer MoS2 and BN as the channel semiconductor and
dielectric layer, respectively. It is found that the mobility, conductance,
carrier concentration, and contact conductance of MoS2 can all be significantly
enhanced with pressure. We expect that the approach could enable unprecedented
ways to explore new phases and properties of materials under coupled
mechano-electrostatic modulation.
