Variability of structural and electronic properties of bulk and monolayer Si2Te3

Since the emergence of monolayer graphene as a promising two-dimensional material, many other monolayer and few-layer materials have been investigated extensively. An experimental study of few-layer Si2Te3 was recently reported, showing that the material has diverse properties for potential applications in Si-based devices ranging from fully integrated thermoelectrics to optoelectronics to chemical sensors. This material has a unique layered structure: it has a hexagonal closed-packed Te sublattice, with Si dimers occupying octahedral intercalation sites. Here we report a theoretical study of this material in both bulk and monolayer form, unveiling a fascinating array of diverse properties arising from reorientations of the silicon dimers between planes of Te atoms. The lattice constant varies up to 5% and the band gap varies up to 40% depending on dimer orientations. The monolayer band gap is 0.4 eV larger than the bulk-phase value for the lowest-energy configuration of Si dimers. These properties are, in principle, controllable by temperature and strain, making Si2T3 a promising candidate material for nanoscale mechanical, optical, and memristive devices.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Low-Energy Electronic Structure of the High-Tc Cuprates La2-xSrxCuO4 Studied by Angle-resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy

We have performed a systematic angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) study of the high-Tc cuprates La2-xSrxCuO4, ranging from the underdoped insulator to the superconductor to the overdoped metal. We have revealed a systematic doping evolution of the band dispersions and (underlying) Fermi surfaces, pseudogap and quasi-particle features under the influence of strong electron-electron interaction and electron-phonon interaction. The unusual transport and thermodynamic properties are explained by taking into account the pseudogap opening and the Fermi arc formation, due to which the carrier number decreases as the doped hole concentration decreases.Comment: 27 pages, 17 figures, accepted in Journal of Physics Condensed Matte

Underlying Fermi surface of Sr14−x_{14-x}Cax_xCu24_{24}O41_{41} in two-dimensional momentum space observed by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy

We have performed an angle-resolved photoemission study of the two-leg ladder system Sr$_{14-x}$Ca$_x$Cu$_{24}$O$_{41}$ with $x$= 0 and 11. "Underlying Fermi surfaces" determined from low energy spectral weight mapping indicates the quasi-one dimensional nature of the electronic structure. Energy gap caused by the charge density wave has been observed for $x$=0 and the gap tends to close with Ca substitution. The absence of a quasi-particle peak even in $x$=11 is in contrast to the two-dimensional high-$T_c$ cuprates, implying strong carrier localization related to the hole crystalization.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Interaction between graphene and SiO2 surface

With first-principles DFT calculations, the interaction between graphene and SiO2 surface has been analyzed by constructing the different configurations based on {\alpha}-quartz and cristobalite structures. The single layer graphene can stay stably on SiO2 surface is explained based on the general consideration of configuration structures of SiO2 surface. It is also found that the oxygen defect in SiO2 surface can shift the Fermi level of graphene down which opens out the mechanism of hole-doping effect of graphene absorbed on SiO2 surface observed in experiments.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure

Polaronic behavior of undoped high-Tc cuprates

We present angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) data on undoped La2CuO4, indicating polaronic coupling between bosons and charge carriers. Using a shell model, we calculate the electron-phonon coupling and find that it is strong enough to give polarons. We develop an efficient method for calculating ARPES spectra in undoped systems. Using the calculated couplings, we find the width of the phonon side band in good agreement with experiment. We analyze reasons for the observed dependence of the width on the binding energy.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX, 5 eps figures, more material available at http://www.fkf.mpg.de/andersen/phonons