Perfect charge compensation in WTe2 for the extraordinary magnetoresistance: From bulk to monolayer

The electronic structure of WTe2 bulk and layers are investigated by using the first principles calculations. The perfect electron-hole (n-p) charge compensation and high carrier mobilities are found in WTe2 bulk, which may result in the large and non-saturating magnetoresistance (MR) observed very recently in the experiment [Ali et al., Nature 514, 205 (2014)]. The monolayer and bilayer of WTe2 preserve the semimetallic property, with the equal hole and electron carrier concentrations. Moreover, the very high carrier mobilities are also found in WTe2 monolayer, indicating that the WTe2 monolayer would have the same extraordinary MR effect as the bulk, which could have promising applications in nanostructured magnetic devices.