The shortcomings of mono-component systems, e.g., the gapless nature of graphene, the lack of air-stability in phosphorene, etc. have drawn great attention toward stacked materials expected to show interesting electronic and optical properties. Using the tight-binding approach and the Green's function method, we investigate the electronic properties of armchair-edged lateral phosphorene/graphene heterostructures, which are either semiconductor/semiconductor or semiconductor/metal heterostructures, depending on the width of graphene ribbon. It is found that the system is narrow-gapped, and the bandgap can be modulated by tuning the size of the domains. Besides, the analysis of the bandgap variation against the width of the component phosphorene ribbon indicates that, in semiconductor/metal heterostructure, phosphorene ribbon does not induce any electronic state near the Fermi level, suggesting that the suppressed electron transport should be attributed to the hole transfer across the interface. Furthermore, we show that the transverse electric field can significantly diversify the electronic behavior of the heterostructure, i.e., the heterostructure undergoes the semiconductor-metal phase transition. Moreover, tuning the transverse electric field yields an intriguing possibility that the system can undergo a topological phase transition from a band insulator to a topological insulator.
Moiré superlattices of van der Waals heterostructures provide a powerful new way to engineer the electronic structures of two-dimensional (2D) materials. Many novel quantum phenomena have emerged in different moiré heterostructures, such as correlated insulators, superconductors, and Chern insulators in graphene systems and moiré excitons in transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) systems. Twisted phosphorene offers another attractive system to explore moiré physics because phosphorene features an anisotropic rectangular lattice, different from the isotropic hexagonal lattice in graphene and TM…
Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) have recently shown much promise as thin layer semiconductors in application to transistor technology. TMDCs provide a unique vantage point for studying the properties of phosphorene, a highly efficient and tunable super-material. Phosphorene-TMDC heterostructure nanodevices have remained largely unexplored due to the lack of air stability observed in phosphorene under ambient conditions. This study investigates a novel nanofabrication technique that effectively enhances the air stability and practical scalability of graphene-analogous phosphorene. A ph…
We study the electric-field tunable electronic properties of phosphorene thin films, using the framework of density functional theory. We show that phosphorene thin films offer a versatile material platform to study two dimensional Dirac fermions on application of a transverse electric field. Increasing the strength of the transverse electric field beyond a certain critical value in phosphorene leads to the formation of two symmetry protected gapless Dirac fermions states with anisotropic energy dispersion. The spin-orbit coupling splits each of these Dirac state into two spin- polarized Dirac…
We study direct and indirect excitons in Rydberg states in phosphorene monolayers, bilayer and van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure in an external magnetic field, applied perpendicular to the monolayer or heterostructure within the framework of the effective mass approximation. Binding energies of magnetoexcitons are calculated by a numerical integration of the Schrodinger equation using the Rytova-Keldysh potential for direct magnetoexcitons and both the Rytova-Keldysh and Coulomb potentials for indirect one. The latter allows to understand the role of screening in phosphorene. We report the m…
The time-dependent spin current mediated spin transfer torque behaviour has been investigated via scattering formalism within density functional theory framework supported by Green's function. Quantum magnetotransport characteristics have been revealed in a model semiconducting MoS$_2$/phosphorene van der Waals heterostructure. The dynamics of spin current channelized heterolayer transport has been studied with rotational variation in magnetization angle. It is observed that the time-dependent spin transport torque remains invariant irrespective of magnetization angle direction. The polarized …
Phosphorene, a honeycomb structure of black phosphorus, was isolated recently. We investigate electric properties of phosphorene nanoribbons based on the tight-binding model. A prominent feature is the presence of quasi-flat edge bands entirely detached from the bulk band. We explore the mechanism of the emergence of the quasi-flat bands analytically and numerically from the flat bands well known in graphene by a continuous deformation of a honeycomb lattice. The quasi-flat bands can be controlled by applying in-plane electric field perpendicular to the ribbon direction. The conductance is swi…
This work is the first step towards understanding thermionic transport properties of graphene/phosphorene/graphene van der Waals heterostructures in contact with gold electrodes by using density functional theory based first principles calculations combined with real space Green's function formalism. We show that for monolayer phosphorene in the heterostructure, quantum tunneling dominates the transport. By adding more phosphorene layers, one can switch from tunneling dominated transport to thermionic dominated transport, resulting in transporting more heat per charge carrier, thus, enhancing …
We study the effects of a vertical electric field on the electronic band structure and transport in multilayer phosphorene and its nanoribbons. In phosphorene, at a critical value of the vertical electric field ($E_c$), the band gap closes and the band structure undergoes a massive-to-massless Dirac fermion transition along the armchair direction. This transition is observable in quantum Hall measurements, as the power-law dependence of the Landau-level energy on the magnetic field $B$ goes from $\sim (n+1/2)B$ below $E_c$, to $\sim [(n+1/2)B]^{2/3}$ at $E_c$, to $\sim [(n+1/2)B]^{1/2}$ above …
As the only non-carbon elemental layered allotrope, few-layer black phosphorus or phosphorene has emerged as a novel two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor with both high bulk mobility and a band gap. Here we report fabrication and transport measurements of phosphorene-hexagonal BN (hBN) heterostructures with one-dimensional (1D) edge contacts. These transistors are stable in ambient conditions for >300 hours, and display ambipolar behavior, a gate-dependent metal-insulator transition, and mobility up to 4000 $cm^2$/Vs. At low temperatures, we observe gate-tunable Shubnikov de Haas (SdH) magneto-o…
Reduced electron screening in two-dimension plays a fundamental role in determining exciton properties, which dictates optoelectronic and photonic device performances. Considering the explicit electron-hole interaction within the $GW-$Bethe-Salpeter formalism, we first study the excitonic properties of pristine phosphorene and investigate the effects of strain and impurity coverage. The calculations reveal strongly bound exciton in these systems with anisotropic spatial delocalization. Further, we present a simplified hydrogenic model with anisotropic exciton mass and effective electron screen…
Atomically thin black phosphorus (BP) is a promising two-dimensional material for fabricating electronic and optoelectronic nano-devices with high mobility and tunable bandgap structures. However, the charge-carrier mobility in few-layer phosphorene (monolayer BP) is mainly limited by the presence of impurity and disorders. In this study, we demonstrate that vertical BP heterostructure devices offer great advantages in probing the electron states of monolayer and few-layer phosphorene at temperatures down to 2 K through capacitance spectroscopy. Electronic states in the conduction and valence …
We investigate theoretically the anisotropic electronic and optical behaviors of a monolayer black phosphorus (phosphorene) modulated by periodic potential superlattices in arbitrary directions. We demonstrate that different strength and orientation of the phosphorene potential superlattice can give rise to distinct energy spectra, i.e., tuning the intrinsic electronic anisotropy. Accordingly, the anisotropic effective mass, and optical absorption modulated by superlattice strength and orientation are addressed systematically. This feature enables tuning capability more than one order of magni…
An antiferromagnetic insulating state has been found in the zigzag phosphorene nanoribbons (ZPNRs) from a comprehensive density functional theory calculations. Comparing with other one-dimensional systems, the magnetism in ZPNRs display several surprising characteristics: (i) the magnetic moments are antiparallel arranged at each zigzag edge; (ii) the magnetism is quite stable in energy (about 29 meV/magnetic-ion) and the band gap is big (about 0.7 eV); (iii) a moderate compressive strain will induce a magnetic to nonmagnetic as well as semiconductor to metal transition. All of these phenomena…
Transport of the edge-state electrons along zigzag phosphorene nanoribbons in presence of two impurities/vacancies is analytically investigated. Considering the places of the defects, a number of different situations are examined. When both defects are placed on the edge zigzag chain, as is expected, with changing the energy of the traveling electrons the electrical conductance exhibits a resonance behavior. In this case, for two vacancies the observed resonant peaks become extremely sharp. An amazing behavior is seen when the second vacancy is located along an armchair chain while the first i…
We report on the modeling of polarization-induced two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) formation at $ε$-AlGaO3 / $ε$-Ga2O3 heterointerface and the effect of spontaneous polarization (Psp) reversal on 2DEG density in $ε$-Ga2O3 /$ε$-AlGaO3 / $ε$-Ga2O3 double heterostructures. Density-functional theory (DFT) is utilized to calculate the material properties of $ε$-Ga2O3 and $ε$-AlGaO3 alloys. Using Schrodinger-Poisson solver along with DFT calculated parameters, the 2DEG density is calculated as a function of barrier type and thickness. By optimizing the layer thicknesses of $ε$-Ga2O3/$ε$-AlGaO3/$ε…
Unique electronic spin textures in topological states of matter are promising for emerging spin-orbit driven memory and logic technologies. However, there are several challenges related to the enhancement of their performance, electrical gate-tunability, interference from trivial bulk states, and heterostructure interfaces. We address these challenges by integrating two-dimensional graphene with a three-dimensional topological insulator (TI) in van der Waals heterostructures to take advantage of their remarkable spintronic properties and engineer proximity-induced spin-charge conversion phenom…
We study electronic and optical properties of single layer phosphorene quantum dots with various shapes, sizes, and edge types (including disordered edges) subjected to an external electric field normal to the structure plane. Compared to graphene quantum dots, in phosphorene clusters of similar shape and size there is a set of edge states with energies dispersed at around the Fermi level. These states make the majority of phosphorene quantum dots metallic and enrich the phosphorene absorption gap with low-energy absorption peaks tunable by the electric field. The presence of the edge states d…
Carrier mobility is a crucial character for electronic devices since it domains power dissipation and switching speed. Materials with certain high carrier mobility, equally, unveil rich unusual physical phenomena elusive in their conventional counterparts. As a consequence, the methods to enhance the carrier mobility of materials receive immense research interests due to their potential applications in more effective electronic devices and enrichment of more unusual phenomena. For instance, introducing a flat hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) substrate to enhance the carrier mobility has been ach…
Antiferromagnets (AFMs) with zero net magnetization are proposed as active elements in future spintronic devices. Depending on the critical thickness of the AFM thin films and the measurement temperature, bimetallic Mn-based alloys and transition metal oxide-based AFMs can host various coexisting ordered, disordered, and frustrated AFM phases. Such coexisting phases in the exchange coupled ferromagnetic (FM)/AFM-based heterostructures can result in unusual magnetic and magnetotransport phenomena. Here, we integrate chemically disordered AFM IrMn3 thin films with coexisting AFM phases into comp…
We investigate band-gap tuning of bilayer graphene between hexagonal boron nitride sheets, by external electric fields. Using density functional theory, we show that the gap is continuously tunable from 0 to 0.2 eV, and is robust to stacking disorder. Moreover, boron nitride sheets do not alter the fundamental response from that of free-standing bilayer graphene, apart from additional screening. The calculations suggest that the graphene-boron nitride heterostructures could provide a viable route to graphene-based electronic devices.
We formulate the effective Hamiltonian of Rashba spin-orbit coupling (RSOC) in $\mathrm{LaAlO_3/SrTiO_3}$ (LAO/STO) heterostructures. We derive analytical expressions of properties, e.g., Rashba parameter, effective mass, band edge energy and orbital occupancy, as functions of material and tunable heterostructure parameters. While linear RSOC is dominant around the $Γ$-point, cubic RSOC becomes significant at the higher-energy anti-crossing region. We find that linear RSOC stems from the structural inversion asymmetry (SIA), while the cubic term is induced by both SIA and bulk asymmetry. Furth…
We study the eigenenergies and optical properties of both direct excitons in a phosphorene monolayer in different dielectric environments, and indirect excitons in heterostructures of phosphorene with hexagonal boron nitride. For these systems, we solve the 2D Schrödinger equation using the Rytova-Keldysh (RK) potential for direct, and both the RK and Coulomb potentials for indirect excitons. The results show that excitons formed from charge carriers with anisotropic effective mass exhibit enhanced (suppressed) optical absorption, compared to their 2D isotropic counterparts, under linearly pol…
The anisotropic nature of the new two-dimensional (2D) material phosphorene, in contrast to other 2D materials such as graphene and transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) semiconductors, allows excitons to be confined in a quasi-one-dimensional (1D) space predicted in theory, leading to remarkable phenomena arising from the reduced dimensionality and screening. Here, we report a trion (charged exciton) binding energy of 190 meV in few-layer phosphorene at room temperature, which is nearly one to two orders of magnitude larger than those in 2D TMD semiconductors (20-30 meV) and quasi-2D quantum …
Zigzag phosphorene nanoribbons are metallic owing to the edge states, whose energies are inside the gap and far from the bulk bands. We show that -- through electrical manipulation of edge states -- electron propagation can be restricted to one of the ribbon edges or, in case of bilayer phosphorene nanoribbons, to one of the layers. This finding implies that edge and layer can be regarded as tunable equivalents of the spin-one-half degree of freedom, i.e., the pseudospin. In both layer- and edge-pseudospin schemes, we propose and characterize a pseudospin field-effect transistor, which can gen…
Early processing of visual information takes place in the human retina. Mimicking neurobiological structures and functionalities of the retina provide a promising pathway to achieving vision sensor with highly efficient image processing. Here, we demonstrate a prototype vision sensor that operates via the gate-tunable positive and negative photoresponses of the van der Waals (vdW) vertical heterostructures. The sensor emulates not only the neurobiological functionalities of bipolar cells and photoreceptors but also the unique synaptic connectivity between bipolar cells and photoreceptors. By t…
Gate-tunable synthetic antiferromagnetism with nonrelativistic spin splitting in a graphene/MnS/graphene heterostructure
Institute of Informatics, Slovak Academy of Sciences（斯洛伐克科学院信息学研究所）；Faculty of Physics, University of Belgrade（贝尔格莱德大学物理学院）；Institute of Physics, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice（科希策帕沃尔·约瑟夫·沙法里克大学物理研究所）；Institute of Experimental Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences（斯洛伐克科学院实验物理研究所）；New Technologies Research Centre, University of West Bohemia（西波希米亚大学新技术研究中心）
Bilayer van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures such as MoS2/WS2 and MoSe2/WSe2 have attracted much attention recently, particularly because of their type II band alignments and the formation of interlayer exciton as the lowest-energy excitonic state. In this work, we calculate the electronic and optical properties of such heterostructures with the first-principles GW+Bethe-Salpeter Equation (BSE) method and reveal the important role of interlayer coupling in deciding the excited-state properties, including the band alignment and excitonic properties. Our calculation shows that due to the interla…
A novel topological insulator with tunable edge states, called quantum spin-quantum anomalous Hall (QSQAH) insulator, is predicted in a heterostructure of a hydrogenated Sb (SbH) monolayer on a LaFeO3 substrate by using ab initio methods. The substrate induces a drastic staggered exchange field in the SbH film, which plays an important role to generate the QSQAH effect. A topologically nontrivial band gap (up to 35 meV) is opened by Rashba spin-orbit coupling, which can be enlarged by strain and electric field. To understand the underlying physical mechanism of the QSQAH effect, a tight-bindin…
Gate-tunable high-mobility InSb/In_{1-x}Al_{x}Sb quantum wells (QWs) grown on GaAs substrates are reported. The QW two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) channel mobility in excess of 200,000 cm^{2}/Vs is measured at T=1.8K. In asymmetrically remote-doped samples with an HfO_{2} gate dielectric formed by atomic layer deposition, parallel conduction is eliminated and complete 2DEG channel depletion is reached with minimal hysteresis in gate bias response of the 2DEG electron density. The integer quantum Hall effect with Landau level filling factor down to 1 is observed. A high-transparency non-all…
We investigate spin transport through ferromagnetic graphene vertical heterostructures where a sandwiched tunneling layer is either a normal or ferroelectric insulator. We show that the spin-polarization of the tunneling current is electronically controlled via gate voltages. We also demonstrate that the tunneling current of Dirac fermions can be prohibited when the spin configuration of ferromagnetic graphene sheets is opposite. The giant electroresistance can thus be developed by using the proposed heterostructure in this study. The effects of temperature on the spin transport and the giant …
Black phosphorus consists of stacked layers of phosphorene, a two-dimensional semiconductor with promising device characteristics. We report the realization of a widely tunable bandgap in few-layer black phosphorus doped with potassium using an in-situ surface doping technique. Through band-structure measurements and calculations, we demonstrate that a vertical electric field from dopants modulates the bandgap owing to the giant Stark effect and tunes the material from a moderate-gap semiconductor to a band-inverted semimetal. At the critical field of this band inversion, the material becomes …
Van der Waals heterostructures combining two-dimensional magnetic and semiconducting layers constitute a promising platform for interfacing magnetism, electronics, and optics. Here, we use resonant optical reflection spectroscopy to the observe magnetic proximity effect in a gate-tunable MoSe$_2$/CrBr$_3$ heterostructure. High quality of the interface leads to a giant zero-field splitting of the K and K' valley excitons in MoSe$_2$, equivalent to an external magnetic field of 12 T, with a weak but distinct electric field dependence that hints at potential for electrical control of magnetizatio…
Nanoscale engineered materials combined with wearable wireless technologies can deliver a new level of health monitoring. A reduced graphene oxide-nylon composite material is developed and tested, demonstrating its usefulness as a material for sensors in wearable, long-term electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring via a comparison to one of the widely used ECG sensors. The structural analysis by scanning electron (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) shows a limited number of defects on a macroscopic scale. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy confirm the presence of rGOx, and …
We report a double-layer electronic system made of two closely-spaced but electrically isolated graphene monolayers sandwiched in boron nitride. For large carrier densities in one of the layers, the adjacent layer no longer exhibits a minimum metallic conductivity at the neutrality point, and its resistivity diverges at low temperatures. This divergence can be suppressed by magnetic field or by reducing the carrier density in the adjacent layer. We believe that the observed localization is intrinsic for neutral graphene with generic disorder if metallic electron-hole puddles are screened out.
We demonstrate gate-tunable resonant tunneling and negative differential resistance in the interlayer current-voltage characteristics of rotationally aligned double bilayer graphene heterostructures separated by hexagonal boron-nitride (hBN) dielectric. An analysis of the heterostructure band alignment using individual layer densities, along with experimentally determined layer chemical potentials indicates that the resonance occurs when the energy bands of the two bilayer graphene are aligned. We discuss the tunneling resistance dependence on the interlayer hBN thickness, as well as the reson…
We study exchange interaction in zigzag bilayer phosphorene nanoribbons (ZBLPNRs) under a perpendicular electric field. We evaluate the spatial and electric field dependency of static spin susceptibility in real space in various configurations of magnetic impurities at zero temperature. The electronic properties of ZBLPNR in the presence of a gate voltage is also obtained. In comparison to the other two-dimensional (2D) materials such as graphene and silicene, ZBLPNR has two nearly degenerated quasiflat edge modes at the Fermi level, isolated from the bulk states. The band gap modulation of ZB…
Interlayer coupling effects between high mobility two-dimensional superconductors are studied in bilayer delta-doped SrTiO3 heterostructures. By tuning the undoped SrTiO3 spacer layer between the dopant planes, clear tunable coupling is demonstrated in the variation of the sheet carrier density, Hall mobility, superconducting transition temperature, and the temperature- and angle-dependences of the superconducting upper critical field. Systematic variation is found between one effective (merged) two-dimensional superconductor to two decoupled two-dimensional superconductors. In the intermediat…
The gating effect achieved by an ionic liquid and its electric double layer allows for charge transfer which can be an order of magnitude larger than with conventional dielectrics. However, the large charged ions also causes inevitable Coulomb scattering in the conducting channel formed at the interface, which can limit the carrier mobility enhancement. In this work, we study the effect of the LaAlO3 thickness on the transport properties in LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures by ionic liquid gating. We find that the transport properties of the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface are dominated by the intrinsic …
Controlling magnetic order in magnetic topological insulators (MTIs) is a key to developing spintronic applications with MTIs, and is commonly achieved by changing the magnetic doping concentration, which inevitably affects spin-orbit-coupling strength and the very topological properties. Here, we demonstrate tunable magnetic properties in topological heterostructures over a wide range, from a ferromagnetic phase with Curie temperature of around 100 K all the way to a paramagnetic phase, while keeping the overall chemical composition the same, by controlling the thickness of non-magnetic space…
Stacking monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides into a heterostructure with a finite twist-angle gives rise to artificial moiré superlattices with a tunable periodicity. As a consequence, excitons experience a periodic potential, which can be exploited to tailor optoelectronic properties of these materials. While recent experimental studies have confirmed twist-angle dependent optical spectra, the microscopic origin of moiré exciton resonances has not been fully clarified yet. Here, we combine first principle calculations with the excitonic density matrix formalism to study transitions…
Spin-orbit coupling stands as a powerful tool to interconvert charge and spin currents and to manipulate the magnetization of magnetic materials through the spin torque phenomena. However, despite the diversity of existing bulk materials and the recent advent of interfacial and low-dimensional effects, control of the interconvertion at room-temperature remains elusive. Here, we unequivocally demonstrate strongly enhanced room-temperature spin-to-charge (StC) conversion in graphene driven by the proximity of a semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenide(WS2). By performing spin precession ex…
