Strain-Engineering the Anisotropic Electrical Conductance of Few-Layer Black Phosphorus

Newly fabricated few-layer black phosphorus and its monolayer structure, phosphorene, are expected to be promising for electronic and optical applications because of their finite direct band gaps and sizable but anisotropic electronic mobility. By first-principles simulations, we show that this unique anisotropic free-carrier mobility can be controlled by using simple strain conditions. With the appropriate biaxial or uniaxial strain (4–6%), we can rotate the preferred conducting direction by 90°. This will be useful for exploring unusual quantum Hall effects and exotic electronic and mechanical applications based on phosphorene

Enhanced Thermoelectric Efficiency via Orthogonal Electrical and Thermal Conductances in Phosphorene

Thermoelectric devices that utilize the Seebeck effect convert heat flow into electrical energy and are highly desirable for the development of portable, solid state, passively powered electronic systems. The conversion efficiencies of such devices are quantified by the dimensionless thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT), which is proportional to the ratio of a device’s electrical conductance to its thermal conductance. In this paper, a recently fabricated two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor called phosphorene (monolayer black phosphorus) is assessed for its thermoelectric capabilities. First-principles and model calculations reveal not only that phosphorene possesses a spatially anisotropic electrical conductance, but that its lattice thermal conductance exhibits a pronounced spatial-anisotropy as well. The prominent electrical and thermal conducting directions are orthogonal to one another, enhancing the ratio of these conductances. As a result, ZT may reach the criterion for commercial deployment along the armchair direction of phosphorene at <i>T</i> = 500 K and is close to 1 even at room temperature given moderate doping (∼2 × 10¹⁶ m^–2 or 2 × 10¹² cm⁻²). Ultimately, phosphorene hopefully stands out as an environmentally sound thermoelectric material with unprecedented qualities. Intrinsically, it is a mechanically flexible material that converts heat energy with high efficiency at low temperatures (∼300 K), one whose performance does not require any sophisticated engineering techniques

Many-Body Effect and Device Performance Limit of Monolayer InSe

Due to a higher environmental stability than few-layer black phosphorus and a higher carrier mobility than few-layer dichalcogenides, two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor InSe has become quite a promising channel material for the next-generation field-effect transistors (FETs). Here, we provide the investigation of the many-body effect and transistor performance scaling of monolayer (ML) InSe based on ab initio GW-Bethe–Salpeter equation approaches and quantum transport simulations, respectively. The fundamental band gap of ML InSe is indirect and 2.60 eV. The optical band gap of ML InSe is 2.50 eV for the in-plane polarized light, with the corresponding exciton binding energy of 0.58 eV. The ML InSe metal oxide semiconductor FETs (MOSFETs) show excellent performances with reduced short-channel effects. The on-current, delay time, and dynamic power indicator of the optimized n- and p-type ML InSe MOSFETs can satisfy the high-performance and low-power requirements of the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors 2013 both down to 3–5 nm gate length in the ballistic limit. Therefore, a new avenue is opened to continue Moore’s law down to 3 nm by utilizing 2D InSe