Title: Electronic Structure and Surface Physics of Two-dimensional Material Molybdenum Disulfide
Description: The interest in two-dimensional materials and materials physics has grown dramatically over the past decade. The family of two-dimensional materials, which includes graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides, phosphorene, hexagonal boron nitride, etc., can be fabricated into atomically thin films since the intralayer bonding arises from their strong covalent character, while the interlayer interaction is mediated by weak van der Waals forces. Among them, molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) has attracted much interest for its potential applications in opto-electronic and valleytronics devices. Previously, much of the experimental studies have concentrated on optical and transport measurements while neglecting direct experimental determination of the electronic structure of MoS₂, which is crucial to the full understanding of its distinctive properties. In particular, like other atomically thin materials, the interactions with substrate impact the surface structure and morphology of MoS₂, and as a result, its structural and physical properties can be affected.

In this dissertation, the electronic structure and surface structure of MoS₂ are directly investigated using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and cathode lens microscopy. Local-probe angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements of monolayer, bilayer, trilayer, and bulk MoS₂ directly demonstrate the indirect-to-direct bandgap transition due to quantum confinement as the MoS₂ thickness is decreased from multilayer to monolayer. The evolution of the interlayer coupling in this transition is also investigated using density functional theory calculations. Also, the thickness-dependent surface roughness is characterized using selected-area low energy electron diffraction (LEED) and the surface structural relaxation is investigated using LEED I-V measurements combined with dynamical LEED calculations. Finally, bandgap engineering is demonstrated via tuning of the interlayer interactions in van der Waals interfaces by twisting the relative orientation in bilayer-MoS₂ and graphene-MoS₂-heterostructure systems.