Monolayer MoS2 Bandgap Modulation by Dielectric Environments and Tunable Bandgap Transistors

Semiconductors with a moderate bandgap have enabled modern electronic device technology, and the current scaling trends down to nanometer scale have introduced two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors. The bandgap of a semiconductor has been an intrinsic property independent of the environments and determined fundamental semiconductor device characteristics. In contrast to bulk semiconductors, we demonstrate that an atomically thin two-dimensional semiconductor has a bandgap with strong dependence on dielectric environments. Specifically, monolayer MoS2 bandgap is shown to change from 2.8 eV to 1.9 eV by dielectric environment. Utilizing the bandgap modulation property, a tunable bandgap transistor, which can be in general made of a two-dimensional semiconductor, is proposed.