Influence of excited carriers on the optical and electronic properties of MoS₂.

We study the ground-state and finite-density optical response of molybdenum disulfide by solving the semiconductor Bloch equations, using ab initio band structures and Coulomb interaction matrix elements. Spectra for excited carrier densities up to 10(13) cm(-2) reveal a redshift of the excitonic ground-state absorption, whereas higher excitonic lines are found to disappear successively due to Coulomb-induced band gap shrinkage of more than 500 meV and binding-energy reduction. Strain-induced band variations lead to a redshift of the lowest exciton line by ∼110 meV/% and change the direct transition to indirect while maintaining the magnitude of the optical response.