Tuning the Electronic Structure of an α-Antimonene Monolayer through Interface Engineering

Abstract

The interfacial charge transfer from the substrate may influence the electronic structure of the epitaxial van der Waals (vdW) monolayers and thus their further technological applications. For instance, the freestanding Sb monolayer in puckered honeycomb phase (α-antimonene), the structural analog of black phosphorene, was predicted to be a semiconductor, but the epitaxial one behaves as a gapless semimetal when grown on the T d -WTe 2 substrate. Here, we demonstrate that interface engineering can be applied to tune the interfacial charge transfer and thus the electron band of epitaxial monolayer. As a result, the nearly freestanding (semiconducting) α-antimonene monolayer with a band gap of ~170 meV was successfully obtained on the SnSe substrate. Furthermore, a semiconductor-semimetal crossover is observed in the bilayer α-antimonene. This study paves the way towards modifying the electron structure in twodimensional vdW materials through interface engineering.

Controllable Growth of α- and β-Antimonene by Interfacial Strain

“…15−21 Freestanding β-Sb is essentially a monolayer of Sb(111) and predicted to undergo a thickness-dependent transition from a normal semiconductor to a topological insulator to a topological semimetal with increasing thickness. 17,18,22 Meanwhile, α-Sb, the antimony analogue of black phosphorene (BP), 23 was reported to exhibit high carrier mobility and tunable electronic structures through substrates, 24,25 which is highly desirable for electronic and optoelectronic applications.…”

“…30,31 The synthesis of α-Sb has been achieved on Bi thin films, 32 WTe 2 , 25 MoTe 2 , and SnSe substrates. 24 Recently, Hogan and co-workers reported that α-Sb prepared on Bi 2 Se 3 can undergo a phase transition to β-Sb by gentle annealing. 33 Meanwhile, Shi et al showed that the distorted hexagonal-like Sb lattice formed on the SnSe substrate at the initial stage will eventually transform into the energetically favorable α-Sb.…”

Direct Growth of van der Waals Tin Diiodide Monolayers

“…The success of mechanically exfoliated graphene has sparked blowout research interests in two‐dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) materials, [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ] with substantial attention paid to the graphene family, [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ] transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), [ 8 , 9 , 10 ] 2D metal carbides/nitrides (MXenes), [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ] and black phosphorene. [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ] In contrast to the bulk counterparts, these materials at the 2D limit exhibit a diverse range of intriguing properties.…”

Experimental Realization and Phase Engineering of a Two-Dimensional SnSb Binary Honeycomb Lattice

“…In analogy to other elemental 2D materials, phase engineering can be realized via delicately tuning the substrate temperature and using appropriate substrates. − Black-phosphorus like antimonene can be stabilized on Bi 2 Se 3 after room temperature (RT) deposition, and transforms to blue-phosphorus like phase after annealing at 473 K due to the perfect lattice match . The phase transition of 2D materials from puckered to buckled phase has shown to be a general trend via bond breaking pathway when taking into the substrate into account.…”