Two-dimensional oxygen functionalized honeycomb and zigzag dumbbell silicene with robust Dirac cones

Dumbbell-like structures are recently found to be energetically favored in group IV two-dimensional (2D) materials, exhibiting rich physics and many interesting properties. In this paper, using first-principles calculations, we have investigated the oxidized form of the hexagonal honeycomb (ODB-h) a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Xin Chen, Linyang Li, François M Peeters, Biplab Sanyal
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2021-01-01
Series:New Journal of Physics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/abdb6e
Description
Summary:Dumbbell-like structures are recently found to be energetically favored in group IV two-dimensional (2D) materials, exhibiting rich physics and many interesting properties. In this paper, using first-principles calculations, we have investigated the oxidized form of the hexagonal honeycomb (ODB-h) and zigzag dumbbell silicene (ODB-z). We confirm that both oxidization processes are energetically favorable, and their phonon spectra further demonstrate the dynamic stability. Contrary to the pristine dumbbell silicene structures (PDB-h and PDB-z silicene), these oxidized products ODB-h and ODB-z silicene are both semimetals with Dirac cones at the Fermi level. The Dirac cones of ODB-h and ODB-z silicene are at the K point and between Y and Γ points respectively, possessing high Fermi velocities of 3.1 × 10 ^5 m s ^−1 (ODB-h) and 2.9–3.4 × 10 ^5 m s ^−1 (ODB-z). The origin of the Dirac cones is further explained by tight-binding models. The semimetallic properties of ODB-h and ODB-z are sensitive to compression due to the self-absorption effect, but quite robust against the tensile strain. These outstanding properties make oxidized dumbbell silicene a promising material for quantum computing and high-speed electronic devices.
ISSN:1367-2630