Strain tuning of magnetism in Mn doped MoS₂ monolayer

We study the strain tuning of magnetism in Mn doped MoS₂ monolayer system. With the increase of the tensile strain, the magnetic ground state changes from a state with total magnetic moment M_tot =1.0 μ_B to another state with M_tot =3.0 μ_B for single doping in a 4 × 4 supercell. Physical mechanism is elucidated from the effects of the local bonding and geometry symmetries on orbital hybridization. In addition, we find the ferromagnetic coupling is favored for small distances between Mn atoms corresponding to the uniform doping concentration of 25%. More importantly, the ferromagnetic state is highly stable and robust to tensile strains. Therefore, diluted magnetic semiconductors can be obtained and the strain engineering should be a very promising approach to tune the magnetic moments. © 2014 IOP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UK.