From optics to superconductivity. Many body effects in transition metal dichalcogenides

We discuss many body effects in MoS₂ ranging from optical properties to the emergence superconductivity (SC) and charge density wave phases (CDW). Combining ab-initio theory and semiconductor Bloch equations we show that excited carriers cause a redshift of the excitonic ground-state absorption line, while higher excitonic lines disappear successively due to a huge Coulomb-induced band gap shrinkage of more than 500 meV and concomitant exciton binding-energy reductions. Upon strong charge doping, we observe a succession of semiconducting, metallic, SC, and CDW regimes. Both, the SC and the CDW instabilities trace back to a Kohn anomaly and related softening of Brillouin zone boundary phonons.