No Arabic abstract
Defects are inevitably present in two-dimensional (2D) materials and usually govern their various properties. Here a comprehensive density functional theory-based investigation of 7 kinds of point defects in a recently produced {gamma} allotrope of 2D phosphorus carbide ({gamma}-PC) is conducted. The defects, such as antisites, single C or P, and double C and P and C and C vacancies, are found to be stable in {gamma}-PC, while the Stone-Wales defect is not presented in {gamma}-PC due to its transition metal dichalcogenides-like structure. The formation energies, stability, and surface density of the considered defect species as well as their influence on the electronic structure of {gamma}-PC is systematically identified. The formation of point defects in {gamma}-PC is found to be less energetically favourable then in graphene, phosphorene, and MoS2. Meanwhile, defects can significantly modulate the electronic structure of {gamma}-PC by inducing hole/electron doping. The predicted scanning tunneling microscopy images suggest that most of the point defects are easy to distinguish from each other and that they can be easily recognized in experiments.
We propose previously unknown allotropes of phosphorus carbide (PC) in the stable shape of an atomically thin layer. Different stable geometries, which result from the competition between sp2 bonding found in graphitic C and sp3 bonding found in black P, may be mapped onto 2D tiling patterns that simplify categorizing of the structures. Depending on the category, we identify 2D-PC structures that can be metallic, semi-metallic with an anisotropic Dirac cone, or direct-gap semiconductors with their gap tunable by in-layer strain.
While crystalline two-dimensional materials have become an experimental reality during the past few years, an amorphous 2-D material has not been reported before. Here, using electron irradiation we create an sp2-hybridized one-atom-thick flat carbon membrane with a random arrangement of polygons, including four-membered carbon rings. We show how the transformation occurs step-by-step by nucleation and growth of low-energy multi-vacancy structures constructed of rotated hexagons and other polygons. Our observations, along with first-principles calculations, provide new insights to the bonding behavior of carbon and dynamics of defects in graphene. The created domains possess a band gap, which may open new possibilities for engineering graphene-based electronic devices.
Electrides are an emerging class of materials with highly-localized electrons in the interstices of a crystal that behave as anions. The presence of these unusual interstitial quasi-atom (ISQ) electrons leads to interesting physical and chemical properties, and wide potential applications for this new class of materials. Crystal defects often have a crucial influence on the properties of materials. Introducing impurities has been proved to be an effective approach to improve the properties of a material and to expand its applications. However, the interactions between the anionic ISQs and the crystal defects in electrides are as yet unknown. Here, dense FCC-Li was employed as an archetype to explore the interplay between anionic ISQs and interstitial impurity atoms in this electride. This work reveals a strong coupling among the interstitial impurity atoms, the ISQs, and the matrix Li atoms near to the defects. This complex interplay and interaction mainly manifest as the unexpected tetrahedral interstitial occupation of impurity atoms and the enhancement of electron localization in the interstices. Moreover, the Be impurity occupying the octahedral interstice shows the highest negative charge state (Be8-) discovered thus far. These results demonstrate the rich chemistry and physics of this emerging material, and provide a new basis for enriching their variants for a wide range of applications.
The study of liquid-liquid phase transition has attracted considerable attention. One interesting example of such phenomenon is phosphorus for which the existence a first-order phase transition between a low density insulating molecular phase and a conducting polymeric phase has been experimentally established. In this paper, we model this transition by an ab-initio quality molecular dynamics simulation and explore a large portion of the liquid section of the phase diagram. We draw the liquid-liquid coexistence curve and determine that it terminates into a second-order critical point. Close to the critical point, large coupled structure and electronic structure fluctuations are observed.
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.