Optical and electronic properties of 2H−MoS2 under pressure: Revealing the spin-polarized nature of bulk electronic bands

Monolayers of transition-metal dichalcogenide semiconductors present spin-valley locked electronic bands, a property with applications in valleytronics and spintronics that is usually believed to be absent in their centrosymmetric (as the bilayer or bulk) counterparts. Here we show that bulk $2\mathrm{H}\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{Mo}{\mathrm{S}}_{2}$ hides a spin-polarized nature of states determining its direct band gap, with the spin sequence of valence and conduction bands expected for its single layer. This relevant finding is attained by investigating the behavior of the binding energy of $A$ and $B$ excitons under high pressure, by means of absorption measurements and density-functi…