Tailoring interlayer coupling has emerged as a powerful tool to tune the electronic structure of van der Waals (vdW) bilayers. One example is the usage of the moire pattern to create controllable two-dimensional electronic superlattices through the configurational dependence of interlayer electronic couplings. This approach has led to some remarkable discoveries in twisted graphene bilayers, and transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) homo- and hetero-bilayers. However, a largely unexplored factor is the interlayer distance, d, which can impact the interlayer coupling strength exponentially. In this letter, we quantitatively determine the coupling strengths as a function of interlayer spacing at various critical points of the Brillouin zone in bilayer MoS2. The exponential dependence of the coupling parameter on the gap distance is demonstrated. Most significantly, we achieved a 280% enhancement of K-valley coupling strength with an 8% reduction of the vdW gap, pointing to a new strategy in designing a novel electronic system in vdW bilayers.
@article{arxiv.2203.16189,
title = {Quantitative determination of interlayer electronic coupling at various critical points in bilayer MoS2},
author = {Wei-Ting Hsu and Jiamin Quan and Chi-Ruei Pan and Peng-Jen Chen and Mei-Yin Chou and Wen-Hao Chang and Allan H MacDonald and Xiaoqin Li and Jung-Fu Lin and Chih-Kang Shih},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2203.16189},
year = {2022}
}