No Arabic abstract
The family of group IV-VI monochalcogenides has an atomically puckered layered structure, and their atomic bond configuration suggests the possibility for the realization of various polymorphs. Here, we report the synthesis of the first hexagonal polymorph from the family of group IV-VI monochalcogenides, which is conventionally orthorhombic. Recently predicted four-atomic-thick hexagonal GeSe, so-called {gamma}-GeSe, is synthesized and clearly identified by complementary structural characterizations, including elemental analysis, electron diffraction, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy imaging, and polarized Raman spectroscopy. The electrical and optical measurements indicate that synthesized {gamma}-GeSe exhibits high electrical conductivity of 3x10^5 S/m, which is comparable to those of other two-dimensional layered semimetallic crystals. Moreover, {gamma}-GeSe can be directly grown on h-BN substrates, demonstrating a bottom-up approach for constructing vertical van der Waals heterostructures incorporating {gamma}-GeSe. The newly identified crystal symmetry of {gamma}-GeSe warrants further studies on various physical properties of {gamma}-GeSe.
Structural degeneracies underpin the ferroic behavior of next-generation two-dimensional materials, and lead to peculiar two-dimensional structural transformations under external fields, charge doping and/or temperature. The most direct indicator of the ease of these transformations is an {em elastic energy barrier}, defined as the energy difference between the (degenerate) structural ground state unit cell, and a unit cell with an increased structural symmetry. Proximity of a two-dimensional material to a bulk substrate can affect the magnitude of the critical fields and/or temperature at which these transformations occur, with the first effect being a relative charge transfer, which could trigger a structural quantum phase transition. With this physical picture in mind, we report the effect of modest charge doping (within $-0.2$ and $+0.2$ electrons per unit cell) on the elastic energy barrier of ferroelastic black phosphorene and nine ferroelectric monochalcogenide monolayers. The elastic energy barrier $J_s$ is the energy needed to create a $Pnm2_1to P4/nmm$ two-dimensional structural transformation. Similar to the effect on the elastic energy barrier of ferroelastic SnO monolayers, group-IV monochalcogenide monolayers show a tunable elastic energy barrier for similar amounts of doping: a decrease (increase) of $J_s$ can be engineered under a modest hole (electron) doping of no more than one tenth of an electron or a hole per atom.
We perform systematic investigation on the geometric, energetic and electronic properties of group IV-VI binary monolayers (XY), which are the counterparts of phosphorene, by employing density functional theory based electronic structure calculations. For this purpose, we choose the binary systems XY consisting of equal numbers of group IV (X = C, Si, Ge, Sn) and group VI elements (Y = O, S, Se, Te) in three geometrical configurations, the puckered, buckled and planar structures. The results of binding energy calculations show that all the binary systems studied are energetically stable. It is observed that, the puckered structure, similar to that of phosphorene, is the energetically most stable geometric configuration. Our results of electronic band structure predict that puckered SiO and CSe are direct band semiconductors with gaps of 1.449 and 0.905 eV, respectively. Band structure of CSe closely resembles that of phosphorene. Remaining group IV-VI binary monolayers in the puckered configuration and all the buckled monolayers are also semiconductors, but with indirect band gaps. Importantly, we find that the difference between indirect and direct band gaps is very small for many puckered monolayers. Thus, there is a possibility of making these systems undergo transition from indirect to direct band gap semiconducting state by a suitable external influence. Indeed, we show in the present work that seven binary monolayers namely SnS, SiSe, GeSe, SnSe, SiTe, GeTe and SnTe become direct band gap semiconductors when they are subjected to a small mechanical strain (<= 3 %). This makes nine out of sixteen binary monolayers studied in the present work direct band gap semiconductors. Thus, there is a possibility of utilizing these binary counterparts of phosphorene in future light-emitting diodes and solar cells.
The two-dimensional ferroelectrics GeS, GeSe, SnS and SnSe are expected to have large spontaneous in-plane electric polarization and enhanced shift-current response. Using density functional methods, we show that these materials also exhibit the largest effective second harmonic generation reported so far. It can reach magnitudes up to $10$ nm/V which is about an order of magnitude larger than that of prototypical GaAs. To rationalize this result we model the optical response with a simple one-dimensional two-band model along the spontaneous polarization direction. Within this model the second-harmonic generation tensor is proportional to the shift-current response tensor. The large shift current and second harmonic responses of GeS, GeSe, SnS and SnSe make them promising non-linear materials for optoelectronic applications.
We investigate the effect of surface acoustic waves on the atomic-like optical emission from defect centers in hexagonal boron nitride layers deposited on the surface of a LiNbO$_3$ substrate. The dynamic strain field of the surface acoustic waves modulates the emission lines resulting in intensity variations as large as 50% and oscillations of the emission energy with an amplitude of almost 1 meV. From a systematic study of the dependence of the modulation on the acoustic wave power, we determine a hydrostatic deformation potential for defect centers in this two-dimensional material of about 40 meV/%. Furthermore, we show that the dynamic piezoelectric field of the acoustic wave could contribute to the stabilization of the optical properties of these centers. Our results show that surface acoustic waves are a powerful tool to modulate and control the electronic states of two-dimensional materials.
We study the injection current response tensor (also known as circular photogalvanic effect or ballistic current) in ferrolectric monolayer GeS, GeSe, SnS, and SnSe. We find that the injection current is perpendicular to the spontaneous in-plane polarization and could reach peak (bulk) values of the order of $10^{10}$A/V$^{2}$s in the visible spectrum. The magnitude of the injection current is the largest reported in the literature to date for a two dimensional material. To rationalize the large injection current, we correlate the injection current spectrum with the joint density of states, electric polarization, strain, etc. We find that various factors such as anisotropy, in-plane polarization and wave function delocalization are important in determining the injection current tensor in these materials. We also find that compression along the polar axis can increase the injection current (or change its sign), and hence strain can be an effective control knob for their nonlinear optical response. Conversely, the injection current can be a sensitive probe of the crystal structure.