anping Ji

Two-dimensional antimonene single crystals grown by van der Waals epitaxy

Unlike the unstable black phosphorous, another two-dimensional group-VA material, antimonene, was recently predicted to exhibit good stability and remarkable physical properties. However, the synthesis of high-quality monolayer or few-layer antimonenes, sparsely reported, has greatly hindered the development of this new field. Here, we report the van der Waals epitaxy growth of few-layer antimonene monocrystalline polygons, their atomical microstructure and stability in ambient condition. The high-quality, few-layer antimonene monocrystalline polygons can be synthesized on various substrates, including flexible ones, via van der Waals epitaxy growth. Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy reveal that the obtained antimonene polygons have buckled rhombohedral atomic structure, consistent with the theoretically predicted most stable β-phase allotrope. The very high stability of antimonenes was observed after aging in air for 30 days. First-principle and molecular dynamics simulation results confirmed that compared with phosphorene, antimonene is less likely to be oxidized and possesses higher thermodynamic stability in oxygen atmosphere at room temperature. Moreover, antimonene polygons show high electrical conductivity up to 104 S m−1 and good optical transparency in the visible light range, promising in transparent conductive electrode applications.

Constructing Fast Carrier Tracks into Flexible Perovskite Photodetectors To Greatly Improve Responsivity

Intrinsically high mobility and large absorption coefficient endow inorganic halide perovskites (IHPs) with great promise for high-performance photodetectors (PDs), which, however, are being hindered by the low carrier extraction and transport efficiency of the solution assembled films. Here, we report on a general strategy to enhance the perovskite film conductivity that carbon nanotubes (CNTs) conductive nanonets are constructed from to provide fast carrier tracks. Resultantly, the CsPbBr3 nanosheet/CNT composite films exhibit both high light harvesting and high conductivity, such advantages are demonstrated by the high performances of corresponding planar PDs. Specifically, the highest external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 7488% and the highest responsivity of 31.1 A W-1 under a bias of 10 V among IHP PDs with planar structure are achieved, which are almost 125-fold over the previous best results. Besides, the efficient charge extraction and transport also remarkably contribute to the fast response speed where a rise time of 16 μs is achieved, which is also superior to state-of-the-art IHP PDs. Furthermore, the composite films exhibit impressive flexibility due to the ultrathin 2D and 1D structural characteristic of perovskites and CNTs. By deploying the PD as a point-like detector, we acquire clear images. The results indicate the promising potentials of the perovskite/CNT composites for solution and ambient condition processed flexible devices, and this strategy is general for all kinds of perovskite optoelectronic devices including photodetectors, phototransistors, and even LEDs.

Antimonene Oxides: Emerging Tunable Direct Bandgap Semiconductor and Novel Topological Insulator

Highly stable antimonene, as the cousin of phosphorene from group-VA, has opened up exciting realms in the two-dimensional (2D) materials family. However, pristine antimonene is an indirect band gap semiconductor, which greatly restricts its applications for optoelectronics devices. Identifying suitable materials, both responsive to incident photons and efficient for carrier transfer, is urgently needed for ultrathin devices. Herein, by means of first-principles computations we found that it is rather feasible to realize a new class of 2D materials with a direct bandgap and high carrier mobility, namely antimonene oxides with different content of oxygen. Moreover, these tunable direct bandgaps cover a wide range from 0 to 2.28 eV, which are crucial for solar cell and photodetector applications. Especially, the antimonene oxide (18Sb-18O) is a 2D topological insulator with a sizable global bandgap of 177 meV, which has a nontrivial Z2 topological invariant in the bulk and the topological states on the edge. Our findings not only introduce new vitality into 2D group-VA materials family and enrich available candidate materials in this field but also highlight the potential of these 2D semiconductors as appealing ultrathin materials for future flexible electronics and optoelectronics devices.

Low-Voltage Photodetectors with High Responsivity Based on Solution-Processed Micrometer-Scale All-Inorganic Perovskite Nanoplatelets

All-inorganic photodetectors based on scattered CsPbBr3 nanoplatelets with lateral dimension as large as 10 µm are fabricated, and the CsPbBr3 nanoplatelets are solution processed governed by a newly developed ion-exchange soldering mechanism. Under illumination of a 442 nm laser, the photoresponsivity of photodetectors based on these scattered CsPbBr3 nanoplatelets is as high as 34 A W-1 , which is the largest value reported from all-inorganic perovskite photodetectors with an external driven voltage as small as 1.5 V. Moreover, the rise and fall times are 0.6 and 0.9 ms, respectively, which are comparable to most of the state-of-the-art all-inorganic perovskite-based photodetectors. All the material synthesis and device characterization are conducted at room temperature in ambient air. This work demonstrates that the solution-processed large CsPbBr3 nanoplatelets are attractive candidates to be applied in low-voltage, low-cost, ultra highly integrated optoelectronic devices.

Boosting Two-Dimensional MoS2/CsPbBr3 Photodetectors via Enhanced Light Absorbance and Interfacial Carrier Separation

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are promising candidates for flexible optoelectronic devices because of their special structures and excellent properties, but the low optical absorption of the ultrathin layers greatly limits the generation of photocarriers and restricts the performance. Here, we integrate all-inorganic perovskite CsPbBr3 nanosheets with MoS2 atomic layers and take the advantage of the large absorption coefficient and high quantum efficiency of the perovskites, to achieve excellent performance of the TMD-based photodetectors. Significantly, the interfacial charge transfer from the CsPbBr3 to the MoS2 layer has been evidenced by the observed photoluminescence quenching and shortened decay time of the hybrid MoS2/CsPbBr3. Resultantly, such a hybrid MoS2/CsPbBr3 photodetector exhibits a high photoresponsivity of 4.4 A/W, an external quantum efficiency of 302%, and a detectivity of 2.5 × 1010 Jones because of the high efficient photoexcited carrier separation at the interface of MoS2 and CsPbBr3. The photoresponsivity of this hybrid device presents an improvement of 3 orders of magnitude compared with that of a MoS2 device without CsPbBr3. The response time of the device is also shortened from 65.2 to 0.72 ms after coupling with MoS2 layers. The combination of the all-inorganic perovskite layer with high photon absorption and the carrier transport TMD layer may pave the way for novel high-performance optoelectronic devices.

Retraction of “Few-Layer Antimonene: Large Yield Synthesis, Exact Atomical Structure, and Outstanding Optical Limiting”

The predictions of arsenene and antimonene open a gate to new two-dimensional (2D) materials. In contrast to the severe unstability of black phosphorus in ambient atmosphere, arsenene and antimonene were recently predicted to be of high stability, as well as outstanding physical and chemical properties, such as extremely high mobility, superior thermal conductivity, high refractive index, and directionally optically transparent. Significantly, monolayer and few-layer antimonenes were recently experimentally fabricated by mechanical exfoliation, however the yield was very low and there’s lack of clear characterizations on the atomical structure and potential applications, which are critical and necessary to promote the developments of this field. Here, we report on a high-yield experimental preparation of high quality, few-layer antimonenes via liquid exfoliation, their atomic level structural elucidation, and unexpected but outstanding nonlinear optical limiting properties even better than graphene in the visible and near infrared region (532 nm-2000 nm) and high transmission (more than 80%) when dispersed in solutions or high concentration doped in Ormosil gel glasses, which might lead to many promising applications in nonlinear optical fields such as laser protection. This work demonstrates that Group 15 2D materials beyond BP could be not only a new 2D crystal family with stability in ambient condition, but also of unique properties

A comprehensive investigation on CVD growth thermokinetics of h-BN white graphene

As an isomorph of graphene, monolayer hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), so-called white graphene, has been in the spotlight of two-dimensional materials due to its outstanding properties. However, the growth of large and uniform white graphene monocrystalline with low density of defects is still a great challenge. Here, we present a comprehensive investigation on the growth thermokinetics of white graphene monocrystalline domains via atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition with the solid ammonia borane as precursors, which will be more suitable for future industrial production due to the handy process and precursor. The single domain size, coverage on substrate, and thickness of white graphene were taken as targeted parameters of products. And then, their dependences on the flow rate of carrier gas, heating temperature of ammonia borane, growth temperature and time were studied in details. Finally, after optimizing the above conditions, both white graphene monocrystalline domains as large as 80 μm2 and polycrystalline ultrathin film with coverage ratio of 95%–100% can be achieved facilely without using vacuum technique. Such white graphene products would be of great significance for the tunnel barrier for the tunneling transistor and the dielectric layers for nanocapacitor with the graphene based heterostructures.

Enhancing Optoelectronic Properties of Low-Dimensional Halide Perovskite via Ultrasonic-Assisted Template Refinement

Low-dimensional halide perovskite (HP) has triggered lots of research attention in recent years due to anisotropic optoelectronic/semiconducting properties and enhanced stability. High-quality low-dimensional HPs via controllable engineering are required to fulfill the encouraging promise for device applications. Here, we introduce, for the first time, postsynthetic ultrasonic-assisted refinement of two-dimensional homologous HPs (OA2PbBr4, OA is octadecylamine). The solution-prepared OA2PbBr4, either in the form of large-sized microcrystal or nanosheet, obtains significantly enhanced crystallinity after ultrasonic treatment. We further show that OA2PbBr4 nanosheets can be used as a template to construct low-dimensional CsPbBr3 with the size and morphology inherited. Importantly, we found the ultrasonic-treated OA2PbBr4 crystals, compared with pristine ones, lead to enhanced optoelectronic properties for the resultant low-dimensional CsPbBr3, as demonstrated by improved photodetection performances, including prolonged charge-carrier lifetime, improved photostability, increased external quantum yield/responsivity, and faster response speed. We believe this work provides novel engineering of low-dimensional HPs beyond the reach of straightforward synthesis.