  Layered van der Waals materials are exciting as they often host multiple,
competing electronic phases. This article reports experimental observation of
the co-existence of insulating and metallic phases deep within the commensurate
charge density wave phase in high-quality devices of few-layer 1T-TaS2. Through
detailed conductance fluctuation spectroscopy of the electronic ground state,
we establish that the mixed-phase consists of insulating regions surrounded by
one-dimensional metallic domain walls. We show that the electronic ground state
of 1T-TaS2 can be affected drastically by strain, eventually leading to the
collapse of the Mott gap in the commensurate charge density wave phase. Our
study resolves an outstanding question, namely the effect of the inter-layer
coupling strength on the electronic phases in layered van der Waals materials.
