Strain-induced lateral heterostructures: Hole localization and the emergence of flat bands in rippled MoS2 monolayers

The formation of 2D lateral heterostructures in rippled MoS2 and similar transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) is studied using density functional theory. Compression of rippled TMDs beyond a threshold compression leads to the formation of a flat valence band associated with strongly localized holes. The implications for exciton manipulation and the emergence of one-dimensional heavy fermion behavior are discussed.