Band structure engineering of monolayer MoS2 on h-BN: first-principles calculations

We have carried out first-principles calculations and theoretical analysis to explore the structural and electronic properties of MoS2/n-h-BN heterostructures consisting of monolayer MoS2 on top of h-BN substrates with one to five layers. We find that the MoS2/n-h-BN heterostructures show indirect bandgap features with both of CBM (in the K point) and VBM (in the Gamma point) localized on the monolayer MoS2. Difference charge density and surface bands indicate there is no obvious charge exchange in the heterostructure systems. We show that the changes from a direct bandgap in monolayer free-stranding MoS2 to an indirect bandgap in MoS2/n-h-BN heterostructure is induced by the strain. Moreover, we find that the bandgaps of MoS2/n-h-BN heterostructures decrease with increasing number of h-BN layers, which is proposed to result from the different strain distributions in MoS2 due to the varieties of lattice mismatch rates between MoS2 and h-BN layers. Our results suggest that the MoS2/n-h-BN heterostructure could serve as a prototypical example for band structure engineering of 2D crystals with atomic layer precision.