Exciton band structure of monolayer MoS$_2$

Fengcheng Wu, Fanyao Qu, A. H. MacDonald

Published 2015-01-09Version 1

We address the properties of excitons in monolayer MoS$_2$ from a theoretical point of view, showing that low-energy excitonic states occur both at the Brillouin zone center and at the Brillouin-zone corners, that binding energies at the Brillouin-zone center deviate strongly from the $(n-1/2)^{-2}$ pattern of the two-dimensional hydrogenic model, and that the valley-degenerate exciton doublet at the Brillouin-zone center splits at finite momentum into an upper mode with non-analytic linear dispersion and a lower mode with quadratic dispersion. Although monolayer MoS$_2$ is a direct-gap semiconductor when classified by its quasiparticle band structure, it may well be an indirect gap material when classified by its excitation spectra.