  Mechanical strain is a powerful tool to tune the optical and optoelectronic
properties of atomically thin semiconductors. Inhomogeneous strain plays an
important role in exciton funneling and the activation of single-photon
emitters in 2D materials. Here, we create an inhomogeneous strain profile in a
2D semiconductor on a micrometer scale by a nanoimprint process. We present a
nanoimprint setup, where a mold is used to apply pressure in a controlled way
to a WS2 monolayer on a heated polymer layer. After printing, the strain
created in the 2D semiconductor is verified by hyperspectral optical imaging.
The developed nanoimprint technique is scalable and could be transferred to
commercial nanoimprint machines.
