Electronic and optical properties of vacancy-doped WS2 monolayers

Monolayers of tungsten disulfide doped with atomic vacancies have been investigated for the first time by density functional theory calculations. The results reveal that the atomic vacancy defects affect the electronic and optical properties of the tungsten disulfide monolayers. The strongly ionic character of the W-S bonds and the non-bonding electrons of the vacancy defects result in spin polarization near the defects. Moreover, the spin polarization of single W atomic vacancies has a larger range than for one or two S atomic vacancies. In particular, increased intensity of absorption and red shift of optical absorption are universally observed in the presence of these atomic defects, which are shown to be a fundamental factor in determining the spin transport and optical absorption of tungsten disulfide monolayers.