Stacked van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures where semiconducting two-dimensional (2D) materials are contacted by overlaid graphene electrodes enable atomically thin, flexible electronics. We use first-principles quantum transport simulations of graphene-contacted MoS2 devices to show how the transistor effect critically depends on the stacking configuration relative to the gate electrode. We can trace this behavior to the stacking-dependent response of the contact region to the capacitive electric field induced by the gate. The contact resistance is a central parameter and our observation establishes an important design rule for ultrathin devices based on 2D atomic crystals.
Keywords: density functional theory; field-effect; graphene; nonequilibrium Green’s function; transport; vdW heterostructures.