Two-dimensional metallic transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are of interest for studying phenomena such as charge-density wave (CDW) and superconductivity. Few-layer tantalum diselenides (TaSe2) are typical metallic TMDs exhibiting rich CDW phase transitions. However, a description of the structural, electronic and vibrational properties for different crystal phases and stacking configurations, essential for interpretation of experiments, is lacking. We present first- principles calculations of structural phase energetics, band dispersion near the Fermi level, phonon properties and vibrational modes at the Brillouin zone center for different layer numbers, crystal phases and stacking geometries. Evolution of the Fermi surfaces as well as the phonon dispersions as a function of layer number reveals dramatic dimensionality effects in this CDW material. Our results indicate strong electronic interlayer coupling, detail energetically possible stacking geometries, and provide a basis for interpretation of Raman spectra.

Low-buckled silicene is a prototypical quantum spin Hall insulator with the topological quantum phase transition controlled by an out-of-plane electric field. We show that this field-induced electronic transition can be further tuned by an in-plane biaxial strain e, owing to the curvaturedependent spin-orbit coupling (SOC): There is a Z 2 ¼ 1 topological insulator phase for biaxial strain jej smaller than 0.07, and the band gap can be tuned from 0.7 meV for e ¼ þ0:07 up to 3.0 meV for e ¼ À0:07. First-principles calculations also show that the critical field strength E c can be tuned by more than 113%, with the absolute values nearly 10 times stronger than the theoretical predictions based on a tight-binding model. The buckling structure of the honeycomb lattice thus enhances the tunability of both the quantum phase transition and the SOC-induced band gap, which are crucial for the design of topological field-effect transistors based on two-dimensional materials. V C 2015 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx.