Band evolution of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides under electric fields

Band engineering of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (2D TMDCs) is of great significance with regard to both fundamental exploration and practical application. Here we report on a study of the band evolution of monolayer and bilayer TMDCs (WS₂, WSe₂, and MoS₂) under vertical electric fields. Our results show that the electric field has a negligible influence on the bandgaps of monolayer TMDCs. For bilayer TMDCs, our results show that their intralayer direct bandgaps are also immune to the electric field. However, the indirect bandgaps of bilayer TMDCs can be effectively tuned by a vertical electric field. Interestingly, we find that the field tunability of the bandgap in bilayer WSe₂ is much larger than those in bilayer WS₂ and MoS₂.