No Arabic abstract
Substrates have strong effects on optoelectronic properties of two-dimensional (2D) materials, which have emerged as promising platforms for exotic physical phenomena and outstanding applications. To reliably interpret experimental results and predict such effects at 2D interfaces, theoretical methods accurately describing electron correlation and electron-hole interaction such as first-principles many-body perturbation theory are necessary. In our previous work [Phys. Rev. B 102, 205113(2020)], we developed the reciprocal-space linear interpolation method that can take into account the effects of substrate screening for arbitrarily lattice-mismatched interfaces at the GW level of approximation. In this work, we apply this method to examine the substrate effect on excitonic excitation and recombination of 2D materials by solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation. We predict the nonrigid shift of 1s and 2s excitonic peaks due to substrate screening, in excellent agreements with experiments. We then reveal its underlying physical mechanism through 2D hydrogen model and the linear relation between quasiparticle gaps and exciton binding energies when varying the substrate screening. At the end, we calculate the exciton radiative lifetime of monolayer hexagonal boron nitride with various substrates at zero and room temperature, as well as the one of WS2 where we obtain good agreement with experimental lifetime. Our work answers important questions of substrate effects on excitonic properties of 2D interfaces.
Two-dimensional (2D) materials are strongly affected by the dielectric environment including substrates, making it an important factor in designing materials for quantum and electronic technologies. Yet, first-principles evaluation of charged defect energetics in 2D materials typically do not include substrates due to the high computational cost. We present a general continuum model approach to incorporate substrate effects directly in density-functional theory calculations of charged defects in the 2D material alone. We show that this technique accurately predicts charge defect energies compared to much more expensive explicit substrate calculations, but with the computational expediency of calculating defects in free-standing 2D materials. Using this technique, we rapidly predict the substantial modification of charge transition levels of two defects in MoS$_2$ and ten defects promising for quantum technologies in hBN, due to SiO$_2$ and diamond substrates. This establishes a foundation for high-throughput computational screening of new quantum defects in 2D materials that critically accounts for substrate effects.
Recently it was suggested that transient excitonic instability can be realized in optically-pumped two-dimensional (2D) Dirac materials (DMs), such as graphene and topological insulator surface states. Here we discuss the possibility of achieving a transient excitonic condensate in optically-pumped three-dimensional (3D) DMs, such as Dirac and Weyl semimetals, described by non-equilibrium chemical potentials for photoexcited electrons and holes. Similar to the equilibrium case with long-range interactions, we find that for pumped 3D DMs with screened Coulomb potential two possible excitonic phases exist, an excitonic insulator phase and the charge density wave phase originating from intranodal and internodal interactions, respectively. In the pumped case, the critical coupling for excitonic instability vanishes; therefore, the two phases coexist for arbitrarily weak coupling strengths. The excitonic gap in the charge density wave phase is always the largest one. The competition between screening effects and the increase of the density of states with optical pumping results in a reach phase diagram for the transient excitonic condensate. Based on the static theory of screening, we find that under certain conditions for the value of the dimensionless coupling constant screening in 3D DMs can be weaker than in 2D DMs. Furthermore, we identify the signatures of the transient excitonic condensate that could be probed by scanning tunneling spectroscopy, photoemission and optical conductivity measurements. Finally, we provide estimates of critical temperatures and excitonic gaps for existing and hypothetical 3D DMs.
Motivated by the recent synthesis of two-dimensional monolayer AlSb, we theoretically investigate its ground state and electronic properties using the first-principles calculations coupled with Bethe-Salpeter equation. An excitonic instability is revealed as a result of larger exciton binding energy than the corresponding one-electron energy gap by $sim$0.1 eV, which is an indicative of a many-body ground state accompanied by spontaneous exciton generation. Including the spin-orbit coupling is proven to be a must to correctly predict the ground state. At room temperature, the two-dimensional monolayer AlSb is a direct gap semiconductor with phonon-limited electron and hole mobilities both around 1700 cm$^2$/V$cdot$s. These results show that monolayer AlSb may provide a promising platform for realization of the excitonic insulator and for applications in the next-generation electronic devices.
Van der Waals heterostructure based on layered two-dimensional (2D) materials offers unprecedented opportunities to create materials with atomic precision by design. By combining superior properties of each component, such heterostructure also provides possible solutions to address various challenges of the electronic devices, especially those with vertical multilayered structures. Here, we report the realization of robust memristors for the first time based on van der Waals heterostructure of fully layered 2D materials (graphene/MoS2-xOx/graphene) and demonstrate a good thermal stability lacking in traditional memristors. Such devices have shown excellent switching performance with endurance up to 107 and a record-high operating temperature up to 340oC. By combining in situ high-resolution TEM and STEM studies, we have shown that the MoS2-xOx switching layer, together with the graphene electrodes and their atomically sharp interfaces, are responsible for the observed thermal stability at elevated temperatures. A well-defined conduction channel and a switching mechanism based on the migration of oxygen ions were also revealed. In addition, the fully layered 2D materials offer a good mechanical flexibility for flexible electronic applications, manifested by our experimental demonstration of a good endurance against over 1000 bending cycles. Our results showcase a general and encouraging pathway toward engineering desired device properties by using 2D van der Waals heterostructures.
The effect of an external in-plane electric field on neutral and charged exciton states in two-dimensional (2D) materials is theoretically investigated. These states are argued to be strongly bound, so that electron-hole dissociation is not observed up to high electric field intensities. Trions in the anisotropic case of monolayer phosphorene are demonstrated to especially robust under electric fields, so that fields as high as 100 kV/cm yield no significant effect on the trion binding energy or probability density distribution. Polarizabilities of excitons are obtained from the parabolicity of numerically calculated Stark shifts. For trions, a fourth order Stark shift is observed, which enables the experimental verification of hyperpolarizability in 2D materials, as observed in the highly excited states of the Rydberg series of atoms and ions.