Abstract:
The present review provides an overview of the transition metal dichalcogenides discovered newly at the level of two dimensions. A special emphasis is given to the electronic structure of semiconducting representatives of this family, which can depend on many factors like thickness, environment, mechanical strain and structural imperfections of the layers. Both calculations and experimental data available to date on example of MoS$_{2}$ compound evidence that, semiconducting dichalcogenide layers could become successful counterparts of graphene and nanosilicon as the materials of flexible nanoelectronics. However, current technologies for the fabrication of single mono- and multilayers of transition metal dichalcogenides still do not offer a large-scale and cost-effective product with the tuned quality to reveal all abilities predicted for these nanostructures.