Transition metal dichalcogenides like MoS2, MoSe2, WS2, and WSe2 have attracted enormous interest during recent years. They are van-der-Waals crystals with highly anisotropic properties, which allows exfoliation of individual layers. Their remarkable physical properties make them promising for applications in optoelectronic, spintronic, and valleytronic devices. Phonons are fundamental to many of the underlying physical processes, like carrier and spin relaxation or exciton dynamics. However, experimental data of the complete phonon dispersion relations in these materials is missing. Here we present the phonon dispersion of bulk MoS2 in the high-symmetry directions of the Brillouin zone, determined by inelastic X-ray scattering. Our results underline the two-dimensional nature of MoS2. Supported by first-principles calculations, we determine the phonon displacement patterns, symmetry properties, and scattering intensities. The results will be the basis for future experimental and theoretical work regarding electron-phonon interactions, intervalley scattering, as well as phonons in related 2D materials.
@article{arxiv.1809.03381,
title = {Phonon dispersion of MoS$_2$},
author = {Hans Tornatzky and Roland Gillen and Hiroshi Uchiyama and Janina Maultzsch},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1809.03381},
year = {2019}
}