Edge effects on band gap energy in bilayer 2H-MoS2 under uniaxial strain

The potential of ultrathin MoS2 nanostructures for applications in electronic and optoelectronic devices requires a fundamental understanding in their electronic structure as a function of strain. Previous experimental and theoretical studies assume that an identical strain and/or stress state is always maintained in the top and bottom layers of a bilayer MoS2 film. In this study, a bilayer MoS2 supercell is constructed differently from the prototypical unit cell in order to investigate the layer-dependent electronic band gap energy in a bilayer MoS2 film under uniaxial mechanical deformations. The supercell contains an MoS2 bottom layer and a relatively narrower top layer (nanoribbon with free edges) as a simplified model to simulate the as-grown bilayer MoS2 flakes with free edges observed experimentally. Our results show that the two layers have different band gap energies under a tensile uniaxial strain, although they remain mutually interacting by van der Waals interactions. The deviation in their band gap energies grows from 0 to 0.42 eV as the uniaxial strain increases from 0% to 6% under both uniaxial strain and stress conditions. The deviation, however, disappears if a compressive uniaxial strain is applied. These results demonstrate that tensile uniaxial strains applied to bilayer MoS2 films can result in distinct band gap energies in the bilayer structures. Such variations need to be accounted for when analyzing strain effects on electronic properties of bilayer or multilayered 2D materials using experimental methods or in continuum models.