Manipulation of electronic structure in WSe2 monolayer by strain

• WSe2 monolayer retains direct band gap when tensile strain is less than 13%.
• WSe2 monolayer turns to indirect gap semiconductor with compressive strain (less than −7%).
• Strain can reduce the band gap of the WSe2 monolayer.

In this paper, we study the electronic properties of WSe2 monolayer with biaxial tensile strain and compressive strain by using first principles based on the density function theory. Under the biaxial tensile strain, WSe2 monolayer retains direct band gap with increasing strain and the band gap of WSe2 continuously decreases with increasing strain, eventually turn to metal when strain is equal to or more than 13%. Under the biaxial compressive strain, WSe2 monolayer turns to indirect gap and the band gap continuously decreases with increasing strain, finally turn to metal when strain is up to −7%. The strain can reduce the band gap of the WSe2 monolayer regardless of the strain direction. By comparison, we can see that the tensile strain appears to be more effective in reducing the band gap of pristine WSe2 monolayer than the compressive strain from −5% to 5%. But the band gap turns to zero quickly from −6% to −7% under compressive strain, however for tensile strain from 5% to 13%, the band gap decreases slowly. Based on the further analysis of the projected charge density for WSe2 monolayer, the fundamental reason of the change of band structure under biaxial tensile strain is revealed.