First-principles study of magnetism of 3d transition metals and nitrogen co-doped monolayer MoS2**Project supported by the Key Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51702089), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 21603109 and 11804081), the Henan Joint Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. U1404216), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation

Abstract

The electronic structures and magnetic properties of diverse transition metal (TM = Fe, Co, and Ni) and nitrogen (N) co-doped monolayer MoS2 are investigated by using density functional theory. The results show that the intrinsic MoS2 does not have magnetism initially, but doped with TM (TM = Fe, Co, and Ni) the MoS2 possesses an obvious magnetism distinctly. The magnetic moment mainly comes from unpaired Mo:4d orbitals and the d orbitals of the dopants, as well as the S:3p states. However, the doping system exhibits certain half-metallic properties, so we select N atoms in the V family as a dopant to adjust its half-metal characteristics. The results show that the (Fe, N) co-doped MoS2 can be a satisfactory material for applications in spintronic devices. On this basis, the most stable geometry of the (2Fe–N) co-doped MoS2 system is determined by considering the different configurations of the positions of the two Fe atoms. It is found that the ferromagnetic mechanism of the (2Fe–N) co-doped MoS2 system is caused by the bond spin polarization mechanism of the Fe–Mo–Fe coupling chain. Our results verify that the (Fe, N) co-doped single-layer MoS2 has the conditions required to become a dilute magnetic semiconductor.