Enhancing the interlayer adhesive force in twisted multilayer MoS₂ by thermal annealing treatment

Few-layer MoS2 has recently gained great attention owing to its remarkable mechanical and photoelectric properties, which are strongly influenced by the interactions and relative orientations between layers. Here, we report on Raman scattering measurements of twisted MoS2 flakes prepared by exfoliation and nondestructive transfer. Thermal annealing treatment can effectively enhance the interlayer coupling of twisted MoS2 and lead to a van der Waals (vdW) interaction between two stacked layers. We have roughly calculated the interlayer coupling force by a diatomic chain model (DCM) and found that the interlayer adhesive force increased by ∼20% compared with no-treatment samples. We additionally found that the non-Bernal stacking structure of MoS2 induces a weakening in the interlayer coupling. This study could promote the development of novel semiconductors, optoelectronic devices, and superlubricity materials.