Two-dimensional stanane: strain-tunable electronic structure, high carrier mobility, and pronounced light absorption

Effect of shear strain on the electronic and optical properties of Al-doped stanane

CONTEXT

The quasi-metallic properties of stanene limit its prospects in optoelectronic devices. Based on first-principles calculations, a systematic study is conducted on the tuning effects of surface hydrogenation and Al atom doping on the electronic and optical properties of stanene. Surface hydrogenation serves as an ideal way to open the forbidden band of stanene, and Al atom doping further increases hydrogenated stanene (stanane) band gap to 0.460 eV. Deformation has a minor impact on the stability of the stanane-Al structure, while shear strain can effectively modulate the band gap engineering of the doped system, reducing the band gap value from 0.460 to 0.170 eV. Deformation induces a redshift in the absorption peak and reflectance, also slowing down the rate of decrease in the absorption coefficient, and enhancing the peak value of light reflectance, which is positively correlated with the degree of shear strain. These findings hold promise for expanding the potential application of monolayer stanane in semiconductor devices.

METHODS

All calculations are performed using CASTEP module in Materials Studio based on the density functional theory (DFT). The Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) generalized gradient approximation (GGA) is employed to describe the exchange-correlation energy (Perdew et al., Phys Rev Lett 77(18), 1996). We construct models for both stanene and stanane. The original unit cell of stanene has two Sn atoms, while stanane consists of two Sn atoms and two H atoms, and expand them to a 3 × 3 × 1 supercell with a vacuum layer of 20 Å in height to prevent interlayer coupling. After convergence testing, the plane-wave cutoff energy is set to 450 eV, and the energy convergence threshold is set to 1 × 10-5 eV. The maximum residual stress for each atom is set to 0.01 eV/Å. Brillouin zone sampling is performed using a 6 × 6 × 1 k-point mesh based on the Monkhorst-Pack method (Monkhorst and Pack, Phys Rev B 13(12), 1976). The k-point accuracy of the density of states and optical properties is 9 × 9 × 1. All calculations are performed using the more advanced OTFG ultrasoft pseudopotential, and structural relaxations are performed using supercells to ensure that the model is fully relaxed. We use the HSE06 functional to calculate the energy band structures of stanane-Al deformed to 0%, 4%, and 8%, resulting in band gap values of 1.465 eV, 1.368 eV, and 1.016 eV, respectively. These values are significantly higher than those obtained using the PBE functional (0.460 eV, 0.397 eV, and 0.170 eV). However, the shapes and trends of the band structures obtained from both PBE and HSE06 calculations are similar. Additionally, the calculation time needed by HSE06 is greatly longer than PBE, which exceeds the capabilities of our computer hardware, and cannot support all subsequent calculations. To investigate the influence of deformations on the variation of band gap values and to conserve computational resources, the subsequent calculations in this study use the PBE functional.

Electric field induced pure spin-photo current in zigzag stanene and germanene nanoribbons

The spin-photo current in single layer stanene and germanene under a linearly polarized light is theoretically investigated based on the tight-binding Hamiltonian combined with the nonequilibrium Green’s function at room temperature. The results show that by considering the simultaneous effect of the linear illumination and a vertical external electric field without any magnetic exchange element, pure spin-photo current without charge current is generated in two-dimensional lattices with a large intrinsic spin–orbit coupling. The necessity of enhanced spin life-time for detection of spin polarization can be explained by spin-valley locking concept. Spin-valley locking arises in buckled two-dimensional materials as a result of the large spin–orbit coupling and electric-field reversible valley spin polarization. Equal absorption of the linearly illumination at both valleys with different spin polarization, leads to pure spin-photo current injection. In addition, an acceptable photoresponsivity has been reported in a broad range of photon energy. The numerical results indicate high quantum efficiency with a maximum of nearly 83% and 50% for stanene and germanene, respectively. This work may pave theoretical reference toward design of new spin-optoelectronic devices based on satanene and germanene junctions with high performance.

Optical absorption spectra of Xene and Xane (Xsilic, german, stan)

We study optical absorption spectra of Xene and Xane (X = silic, german, stan). The results show that the optical absorption spectra of Xenes are dominated by a sharp peak near the origin due to direct interband transitions near theKpoint of the Brillouin zone. Meanwhile, the optical absorption spectra of Xanes are characterized by an excitonic peak. The Xenes are zero-gap materials with a Dirac cone at theKpoint, whereas Xanes are semiconductors with sizable band gaps. The quasiparticle band gaps of silicane, germanane, and stanane are 3.60, 2.21, and 1.35 eV, respectively; their exciton binding energies are 0.40, 0.33, and 0.20 eV, respectively.

Phonon thermal conductivity of the stanene/hBN van der Waals heterostructure

We use classical non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) simulations to investigate the phonon thermal conductivity (PTC) of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) supported stanene. At first, we examine the length dependent PTCs of bare stanene and hBN, and the stanene/hBN heterostructure and realize the dominance of the hBN layer to dictate the PTC in the heterostructure system. Afterward, we assess the length-independent bulk PTCs of these materials. The bulk PTCs at room temperature are found as ∼15.20 W m-1 K-1, ∼550 W m-1 K-1, and ∼232 W m-1 K-1 for bare stanene and hBN, and stanene/hBN, respectively. Moreover, our simulations reveal that bare stanene exhibits a substantially lower PTC compared to bare hBN, and the predicted PTC of stanene/hBN lies between those of stand-alone stanene and hBN. We also found that the PTC obtained for the stanene/hBN system from NEMD simulations nicely agrees with the theoretical formula developed to predict the PTC of heterostructures of two distinct materials. Temperature studies suggest that the PTC of the stanene/hBN heterostructure system follows a decreasing trend with increasing temperature. Additionally, corresponding phonon density of states (PDOS) and phonon dispersion data are provided to comprehensively understand the phonon properties of bare stanene and hBN, and stanene/hBN. Overall, this NEMD study would offer a deep understating towards the PTC of the stanene/hBN heterostructure and would widen the scope of its successful operations in future nanoelectronic, spintronic, and thermoelectric devices.

Characterization of the mechanical properties of van der Waals heterostructures of stanene adsorbed on graphene, hexagonal boron-nitride and silicon carbide

Stanene has revealed a new horizon in the field of quantum condensed matter and energy conversion devices but its significantly lower tensile strength limits its further applications and effective operation in these nanodevices. Van der Waals heterostructures have given substantial flexibility to integrate different two-dimensional (2D) layered materials over the past few years and have proven highly functional with exceptional features, appealing applications, and innovative physics. Considerable efforts have been made for the preparation, thorough understanding, and applications of van der Waals heterostructures in the fields of electronics and optoelectronics. In this paper, we have executed Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations to predict the tensile strength of van der Waals heterostructures of stanene (Sn) adsorbed on graphene (Gr), hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), and silicon carbide (SiC) (Sn/Gr, Sn/hBN, and Sn/SiC, respectively) subjected to both armchair and zigzag directional loading at different strain rates for the first time, which has enticing applications in electronic, optoelectronic, energy storage and bio-engineered devices. Among all the van der Waals heterostructures, the Sn/SiC heterostructure exhibits the lowest tensile strength and tensile strain. Furthermore, it has been found that zigzag directional loading could endure more tensile strain before fracture. Besides, it has been disclosed that though the rule of mixtures may accurately reproduce the Young's modulus of these heterostructures, it has limitations to predict the tensile strength. Fracture analysis suggests that for the Sn/hBN heterostructure the fracture initiates from the stanene layer while for the Sn/Gr and Sn/SiC heterostructures the fracture initiates from the Gr and SiC layer, respectively, for both armchair and zigzag directional loading. Overall, this study would aid in the design and efficient operation of Sn/Gr, Sn/hBN, and Sn/SiC heterostructures when subjected to mechanical force.

Two-dimensional penta-Sn3H2 monolayer for nanoelectronics and photocatalytic water splitting: a first-principles study

Exploring two-dimensional materials with novel properties is becoming particularly important due to their potential applications in future electronics and optoelectronics. In the current work, the electronic and optical properties of penta-Sn3H2 are investigated by density-functional theory. By assessing the phonon spectrum, we find that penta-Sn3H2 monolayer is energetically more favorable compared with pristine penta-stanene due to hydrogenation transforming the sp2-sp3 hybrid orbitals into sp3 hybridization. Our calculations revealed that penta-Sn3H2 is a semiconductor with indirect band gaps of 1.48 eV according to the GGA functional (2.44 eV according to the HSE06 functional). Moreover, the electronic structures of penta-Sn3H2 can be effectively modulated by biaxial tensile strain. Meanwhile, our calculations reveal that the indirect to direct band gap transition can be achieved in this monolayer sheet by >4% biaxial strain. On the other hand, the well-located band edge and visible light absorption make penta-Sn3H2 a potentially promising optoelectronic material for photocatalytic water splitting.

Electronic and optical properties of hydrogenated group-IV multilayer materials

Hydrogenated group-IV layered materials are semiconducting forms of silicene, germanene and stanene.

Quasiparticle and optical properties of strained stanene and stanane

Quasiparticle band structures and optical properties of two dimensional stanene and stanane (fully hydrogenated stanene) are studied by the GW and GW plus Bethe–Salpeter equation (GW-BSE) approaches, with inclusion of the spin-orbit coupling (SOC). The SOC effect is significant for the electronic and optical properties in both stanene and stanane, compared with their group IV-enes and IV-anes counterparts. Stanene is a semiconductor with a quasiparticle band gap of 0.10 eV. Stanane has a sizable band gap of 1.63 eV and strongly binding exciton with binding energy of 0.10 eV. Under strain, the quasiparticle band gap and optical spectrum of both stanene and stanane are tunable.

Strain tunable magnetism in SnX2 (X = S, Se) monolayers by hole doping

By first-principles calculations, the magnetism of hole doped tin dichalcogenides SnX₂ (X = S, Se) monolayers is systematically studied. It is found that a phase transition from nonmagnetic to ferromagnetic ground state appears once above the critical hole density (~10¹⁴ cm⁻²). The spin magnetic moment can maintain a magnitude of 1.0 μ_B/hole with excellent stability of ferromagnetic state. Furthermore, we demonstrate that strain is very useful to modulate the DOS near the valence band, resulting in the reduction of the critical hole density to ~10¹³ cm⁻² when the strain reaches 4% (6%) in SnS₂ (SnSe₂), which can be realized in common field effect transistors. Moreover, the phonon dispersion calculations for the strained SnX₂ monolayers indicate that they can keep the dynamical stability under the hole doping. Therefore, the strain tunable magnetic transition in hole doped tin dichalcogenides indicates their potential promising applications in spintronic devices.