Andrew Copple

Strain-engineered direct-indirect band gap transition and its mechanism in two-dimensional phosphorene

Recently fabricated two-dimensional phosphorene crystal structures have demonstrated great potential in applications of electronics. In this paper, strain effect on the electronic band structure of phosphorene was studied using first-principles methods including density functional theory (DFT) and hybrid functionals. It was found that phosphorene can withstand a tensile stress and strain up to 10 N/m and 30%, respectively. The band gap of phosphorene experiences a direct-indirect-direct transition when axial strain is applied. A moderate −2% compression in the zigzag direction can trigger this gap transition. With sufficient expansion (+11.3%) or compression (−10.2% strains), the gap can be tuned from indirect to direct again. Five strain zones with distinct electronic band structure were identified, and the critical strains for the zone boundaries were determined. Although the DFT method is known to underestimate band gap of semiconductors, it was proven to correctly predict the strain effect on the electronic properties with validation from a hybrid functional method in this work. The origin of the gap transition was revealed, and a general mechanism was developed to explain energy shifts with strain according to the bond nature of near-band-edge electronic orbitals. Effective masses of carriers in the armchair direction are an order of magnitude smaller than that of the zigzag axis, indicating that the armchair direction is favored for carrier transport. In addition, the effective masses can be dramatically tuned by strain, in which its sharp jump/drop occurs at the zone boundaries of the direct-indirect gap transition.

Edge effects on the electronic properties of phosphorene nanoribbons

Two dimensional few-layer black phosphorus crystal structures have recently been fabricated and have demonstrated great potential in electronic applications. In this work, we employed first principles density functional theory calculations to study the edge and quantum confinement effects on the electronic properties of the phosphorene nanoribbons (PNR). Different edge functionalization groups, such as H, F, Cl, OH, O, S, and Se, in addition to a pristine case were studied for a series of ribbon widths up to 3.5 nm. It was found that the armchair-PNRs (APNRs) are semiconductors for all edge groups considered in this work. However, the zigzag-PNRs (ZPNRs) show either semiconductor or metallic behavior in dependence on their edge chemical species. Family 1 edges (i.e., H, F, Cl, OH) form saturated bonds with P atoms in the APNRs and ZPNRs, and the edge states keep far away from the band gap. However, Family 2 edges (pristine, O, S, Se) form weak unsaturated bonds with the pz orbital of the phosphorus atoms and bring edge states within the band gap of the ribbons. For the ZPNRs, the edge states of Family 2 are present around the Fermi level within the band gap, which close up the band gap of the ZPNRs. For the APNRs, these edge states are located at the bottom of the conduction band and result in a reduced band gap.

Engineering the work function of armchair graphene nanoribbons using strain and functional species: a first principles study

First principles density functional theory calculations were performed to study the effects of strain, edge passivation, and surface functional species on the structural and electronic properties of armchair graphene nanoribbons (AGNRs), with a particular focus on the work function. The work function was found to increase with uniaxial tensile strain and decrease with compression. The variation of the work function under strain is primarily due to the shift of the Fermi energy with strain. In addition, the relationship between the work function variation and the core level shift with strain is discussed. Distinct trends of the core level shift under tensile and compressive strain were discovered. For AGNRs with the edge carbon atoms passivated by oxygen, the work function is higher than for nanoribbons with the edge passivated by hydrogen under a moderate strain. The difference between the work functions in these two edge passivations is enlarged (reduced) under a sufficient tensile (compressive) strain. This has been correlated to a direct-indirect bandgap transition for tensile strains of about 4% and to a structural transformation for large compressive strains at about - 12%. Furthermore, the effect of the surface species decoration, such as H, F, or OH with different covering density, was investigated. It was found that the work function varies with the type and coverage of surface functional species. Decoration with F and OH increases the work function while H decreases it. The surface functional species were decorated on either one side or both sides of AGNRs. The difference in the work functions between one-sided and two-sided decorations was found to be relatively small, which may suggest an introduced surface dipole plays a minor role.

Engineering direct-indirect band gap transition in wurtzite GaAs nanowires through size and uniaxial strain

Electronic structures of wurtzite GaAs nanowires in the [0001] direction were studied using first-principles calculations. It was found that the band gap of GaAs nanowires experiences a direct-to-indirect transition when the diameter of the nanowires is smaller than ∼28 A. For those thin GaAs nanowires with an indirect band gap, it was found that the gap can be tuned to be direct if a moderate external uniaxial strain is applied. Both tensile and compressive strain can trigger the indirect-to-direct gap transition. The critical strains for the gap-transition are determined by the energy crossover of two states in conduction bands.