Tuning Magnetism of Zirconium Disulfide Nanoribbons by Strain

Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides have recently attracted considerable attention due to their unusual physical properties and potential applications in nanoscale electronic devices. We carried out \textit{ab initio} density functional calculations to study the electronic and magnetic properties of strained ZrS$_2$ nanoribbons. Our calculations demonstrated that ZrS$_2$ nanoribbons without edge passivation were non-magnetic. In contrast, we found that ZrS$_2$ nanoribbons passivated with hydrogen atoms could switch between the regimes of magnetic and non-magnetic behaviour. Our study showed that edge-passivated armchair ZrS$_2$ nanoribbons were magnetic under applied strain up to 6\%,whereas zigzag ZrS$_2$ nanoribbons were magnetic under applied strain between 7\% and 12\%. The results of our calculations suggested the possibility of tuning the magnetism of ZrS$_2$ nanoribbons by changing the applied strain.