Electronic structures and elastic properties of monolayer and bilayer transition metal dichalcogenides MX2 (M = Mo, W; X = O, S, Se, Te): A comparative first-principles study

First-principle calculations with different exchange-correlation functionals, including LDA, PBE, and vdW-DF functional in the form of optB88-vdW, have been performed to investigate the electronic and elastic properties of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) with the formula of MX2(M = Mo, W; X = O, S, Se, Te) in both monolayer and bilayer structures. The calculated band structures show a direct band gap for monolayer TMDCs at the K point except for MoO2 and WO2. When the monolayers are stacked into a bilayer, the reduced indirect band gaps are found except for bilayer WTe2, in which the direct gap is still present at the K point. The calculated in-plane Young moduli are comparable to that of graphene, which promises possible application of TMDCs in future flexible and stretchable electronic devices. We also evaluated the performance of different functionals including LDA, PBE, and optB88-vdW in describing elastic moduli of TMDCs and found that LDA seems to be the most qualified method. Moreover, our calculations suggest that the Young moduli for bilayers are insensitive to stacking orders and the mechanical coupling between monolayers seems to be negligible.