Flexoelectricity in Monolayer Transition Metal Dichalcogenides

Flexoelectricity, the coupling effect of the strain gradient and charge polarization, is an important route to tune electronic properties of low-dimensional materials. Here our extensive first-principles calculations reveal that structural wrinkling and corrugation will cause significant flexoelectricity in transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) monolayers. The flexoelectricity is induced by the strain gradients created along the finite thickness of the wrinkled TMD monolayers and becomes more dominant in determining out-of-plane polarizations with decreasing wavelengths of the TMD wrinkles. According to the first-principles calculations and whole structural symmetry, a theoretical model is developed to describe the total out-of-plane polarizations and flexoelectric effect of the wrinkled TMD monolayers. The unveiled flexoelectricity in monolayer TMDs highlights a potential for their application in energy conversion devices.