Ab initio study of electronic and magnetic properties in Ni-doped WS2 monolayer

The magnetic properties of Ni-doped WS2 monolayer are investigated using first-principles method. The results indicate that both one-Ni-doped and the nearest two-Ni-doped systems are magnetic. The p-d hybridization between the Ni atom and its neighboring S atoms results in the ferromagnetic interaction of the Ni-doped WS2 monolayer. The antiferromagnetic coupling is observed with increasing Ni-Ni distance which can be explained by two-impurity Haldane-Anderson model using quantum Monte Carlo method. Our studies show that the nearest two Ni-doped WS2 monolayers to be candidates for two-dimensional transition-metal nanosheets. Moreover, we discussed the differences in the formation energy between W-rich and S-rich conditions. Our results also predict that it would be easier to incorporate Ni atoms into a S-rich WS2 monolayer in the experiment. (C) 2016 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).