Plasmons probe the quantum response: Electronic systems are typically considered as classical Fermi liquids, and the quantum mechanical interactions and processes are usually only accessed at very low temperatures and high magnetic fields. Lundeberg et al. used tunable plasmons to probe the quantum response of the electron gas of graphene (see the Perspective by Basov and Fogler). They studied shape deformations of the Fermi surface during a plasmon oscillation, as well as many-body electronic effects. Science , this issue p. 187 ; see also p. 132

We propose an effective lattice Hamiltonian for monolayer MoS${}_2$ in order to describe the low-energy band structure and investigate the effect of perpendicular electric and magnetic fields on its electronic structure. We derive a tight-binding model based on the hybridization of the $d$ orbitals of molybdenum and $p$ orbitals of sulfur atoms and then introduce a modified two-band continuum model of monolayer MoS${}_2$ by exploiting the quasidegenerate partitioning method. Our theory proves that the low-energy excitations of the system are no longer massive Dirac fermions. It reveals a difference between electron and hole masses and provides trigonal warping effects. Furthermore, we predict a valley-degeneracy-breaking effect in the Landau levels. In addition, we also show that applying a gate voltage perpendicular to the monolayer modifies the electronic structure, including the band gap and effective masses.

We report a first-principles study on the elastic, vibrational, and electronic properties of the recently synthesized phosphorene. By calculating the Grüneisen parameters, we evaluate the frequency shift of the Raman and infrared active modes via symmetric biaxial strain. We also study a strain-induced semiconductor-metal transition, the gap size, and the effective mass of carriers in various strain configurations. Furthermore, we unfold the emergence of a peculiar Dirac-shaped dispersion for specific strain conditions including the zigzag-oriented tensile strain. The observed linear energy spectrum has distinct velocities corresponding to each of its linear branches and is limited to the $\Gamma \text{−}X$ direction in the first Brillouin zone.

We present numerical and analytical results for the optical and acoustic plasmon collective modes of coupled massless-Dirac two-dimensional electron systems. Our results apply to topological insulator (TI) thin films and to two graphene sheets separated by a thin dielectric barrier layer. We find that, because of strong bulk dielectric screening, TI acoustic modes are locked to the top of the particle-hole continuum and, therefore, probably unobservable.

Wave propagation control by spatial modulation of velocity has a long history in optics and acoustics. We address velocity-modulation control of electron wave propagation in graphene and other two-dimensional Dirac-electron systems, pointing out a key distinction of the Dirac-wave case. We also propose a strategy for pattern transfer from a remote metallic layer that is based on many-body velocity renormalization.

We study the effect of a perpendicular magnetic field on the electronic structure and charge transport of a monolayer ${\text{MoS}}_{2}$ nanoribbon at zero temperature. We particularly explore the induced valley Zeeman effect through the coupling between the magnetic field $B$ and the orbital magnetic moment. We show that the effective two-band Hamiltonian provides a mismatch between the valley Zeeman coupling in the conduction and valence bands due to the effective mass asymmetry and it is proportional to ${B}^{2}$ similar to the diamagnetic shift of exciton binding energies. However, the dominant term which evolves with $B$ linearly, originates from the multiorbital and multiband structures of the system. Besides, we investigate the transport properties of the system by calculating the spin-valley resolved conductance and show that, in a low-hole doped case, the transport channels at the edges are chiral for one of the spin components. This leads to a localization of the nonchiral spin component in the presence of disorder and thus provides a spin-valley polarized transport induced by disorder.