The structural, electronic, optical, and photocatalytic properties of out-of-plane and in-plane heterostructures of transition metal dichalcogenides are investigated by (hybrid) first principles calculations. The out-of-plane heterostructures are found to be indirect band gap semiconductors with type-II band alignment. Direct band gaps can be achieved by moderate tensile strain in specific cases. The excitonic peaks show blueshifts as compared to the parent monolayer systems, whereas redshifts occur when the chalcogen atoms are exchanged along the series S-Se-Te. Strong absorption from infrared to visible light as well as excellent photocatalytic properties can be achieved.
In this work, we construct an ultrathin graphene/GaS heterostructure and investigate its electronic properties as well as the effect of vertical strain using density functional theory. The calculated results of the equilibrium interlayer spacing (3.356 Å) and the binding energy show that the intrinsic properties of isolated graphene and GaS monolayers can be preserved and the weak van der Waals interactions are dominated in the heterostructures. The van der Waals heterostructure (vdWH) forms an n-type Schottky contact with a small Schottky barrier height of 0.51 eV. This small Schottky barrier height can also be tuned by applying vertical strain. Furthermore, we find that the n-type Schottky contact of the vdWH can be changed to p-type when the interlayer spacing is decreased and exceeded to 2.60 Å. These findings show the great potential application of the graphene/GaS vdWH for designing next generation devices.
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