Ab initio study of MoS₂ nanotube bundles

Recently, the synthesis of a new phase of MoS₂I_1/3 stoichiometry was reported [M. Remskar, A. Mrzel, Z. Skraba, A. Jesih, M. Ceh, J. Demšar, P. Stadelmann, F. Lévy, and D. Mihailovic, Science 292, 479 (2001)]. Electron microscope images and diffraction data were interpreted to indicate bundles of sub-nanometer-diameter single-wall MoS₂ nanotubes. After experimental characterization, the structure was attributed to an assembly of "armchair" nanotubes with interstitial iodine. Using first-principles total-energy calculations, bundles of MoS₂ nanotubes with different topologies and stoichiometries are investigated. All of the systems are strongly metallic. Configurations with "zigzag" structures are found to be more stable energetically than the "armchair" ones, though all of the structures have similar stabilities. After relaxation, there remain several candidates which give a lattice parameter in relative agreement with experiment. Further, spin-polarized calculations indicate that a structure with armchair tubes iodine atoms in their center acquires a very large spontaneous magnetic moment of 12μ_B, while the other structures are nonmagnetic. Our ab initio calculations show that in most of the other structures, the tubes are very strongly bound together, and that the compounds should be considered as a crystal, rather than as a bundle of tubes in the habitual sense.