Effect of Nanoribbon Width and Strain on the Electronic Properties of the WS2 Nanoribbon

Abstract

Materials of the general form MX2 (transition metal dichalcogenides) have generated a lot of interest recently. They can form nanoribbons like graphene and such nanoribbons have versatile electronic structures and can be metallic or semiconducting by changing the edges of the ribbon. The electronic properties of such materials are not fully understood till now. In this paper we investigate one such material, Tungstenite (WS2). We investigate the band-structure of the zigzag and the armchair nanoribbon. We observe the direct bandgap in the nanoribbons as opposed to indirect bandgap in the bulk material. Also by changing the edge orientation of the nanoribbon from armchair to zigzag, the properties change considerably with zigzag as metallic and armchair as semiconducting. Further we investigate the effect of increasing the ribbon width and the effect of uniaxial and biaxial strain on the nanoribbon.