High Ambipolar Mobility and Long-Range Carrier Transport in Violet Phosphorus Nanosheet.

Carrier transport capacity with high mobility and long-range diffusion length holds particular significance for the advancement of modern optoelectronic devices. Herein, we have unveiled the carrier dynamics and transport properties of a pristine violet phosphorus (VP) nanosheet by a transient absorption microscopy. Under the excitation (2.41 eV) above the exciton band, two photoinduced absorption peaks with the energy difference of approximately 520 meV emerge within a broadband transient absorption background which originates from the prompt generation of free carriers and the concomitant formation of excitons (lifetime of 467.21 ps). This observation is consistent with the established band-edge model of VP. Intriguingly, we have determined the ambipolar diffusion coefficient and mobility of VP to be approximately 47.32 cm2·s-1 and 1798 cm2·V-1·s-1, respectively, which further indicate a long-range carrier transport of approximately 2.10 µm. This work unveils the significant carrier transport capacity of VP, highlighting its potential for future optoelectronic and excitonic applications.

The Coexistence of Superconductivity and Topological Order in Van der Waals InNbS2.

The research on systems with coexistence of superconductivity and nontrivial band topology has attracted widespread attention. However, the limited availability of material platforms severely hinders the research progress. Here, it reports the first experimental synthesis and measurement of high-quality single crystal van der Waals transition-metal dichalcogenide InNbS2 , revealing it as a topological nodal line semimetal with coexisting superconductivity. The temperature-dependent measurements of magnetization susceptibility and electrical transport show that InNbS2 is a type-II superconductor with a transition temperature Tc of 6 K. First-principles calculations predict multiple topological nodal ring states close to the Fermi level in the presence of spin-orbit coupling. Similar features are also observed in the as-synthesized BiNbS2 and PbNbS2 samples. This work provides new material platforms ANbS2 (A = In, Bi, and Pb) and uncovers their intriguing potential for exploring the interplay between superconductivity and band topology.

Phonon Chirality Manipulation Mechanism in Transition-Metal Dichalcogenide Interlayer-Sliding Ferroelectrics.

As an ideal platform, both the theoretical prediction and first experimental verification of chiral phonons are based on transition-metal dichalcogenide materials. The manipulation of phonon chirality in these materials will have a profound effect on the study of chiral phonons. In this work, we utilize the sliding ferroelectric effect to realize the phonon chirality manipulation mechanism in transition-metal dichalcogenide materials. Based on first-principles calculations, we find the different manipulation effects of interlayer sliding on the phonon chirality and Berry curvature in bilayer and four-layer MoS2 sliding ferroelectrics. These further affect the phonon angular momentum and magnetization under a temperature gradient and the phonon Hall effect under a magnetic field. Our work connects two emerging fields and opens up a new route to manipulating phonon chirality in transition-metal dichalcogenide materials through the sliding ferroelectric mechanism.

Two-dimensional Janus Si dichalcogenides: a first-principles study.

Strong structural asymmetry is actively explored in two-dimensional (2D) materials, because it can give rise to many interesting physical properties. Motivated by the recent synthesis of monolayer Si2Te2, we explored a family of 2D materials, named Janus Si dichalcogenides (JSD), which parallel the Janus transition metal dichalcogenides and exhibit even stronger inversion asymmetry. Using first-principles calculations, we show that their strong structural asymmetry leads to a pronounced intrinsic polar field, sizable spin splitting, and large piezoelectric response. The spin splitting involves an out-of-plane spin component, which is beyond the linear Rashba model. The piezoelectric tensor has a large value in both in-plane d11 coefficient and out-of-plane d31 coefficient, making monolayer JSDs distinct among existing 2D piezoelectric materials. In addition, we find interesting strain-induced phase transitions in these materials. Particularly, there are multiple valleys that compete for the conduction band minimum, which will lead to notable changes in the optical and transport properties under strain. Our work reveals a new family of Si based 2D materials, which could find promising applications in spintronic and piezoelectric devices.

Ferroelectricity and multiferroicity in two-dimensional Sc2P2Se6 and ScCrP2Se6 monolayers.

Two-dimensional (2D) multiferroic materials with coexistence of ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism have attracted extensive research interest due to novel physical properties and potential applications, such as in non-volatile storage nanodevices. Here, using first-principles calculations, we predicted two types of 2D materials, Sc2P2Se6 and ScCrP2Se6 monolayers with ferroelectric (FE) and multiferroic properties, respectively. The Sc2P2Se6 monolayer has out-of-plane FE polarization originating from the asymmetrical arrangement of P atoms. The FE phase is separated from the antiferroelectric (AFE) phase by an energy barrier of 0.13 eV, ensuring the stability of the FE state at room temperature. The ScCrP2Se6 monolayer formed by substituting half of the Sc atoms of Sc2P2Se6 with Cr exhibits multiferroic properties. The magnetic ground state of the ScCrP2Se6 monolayer is tunable, due to the disparity of an indirect exchange interaction between the FE and AFE phases. A reversible electrical switching between the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic states can be achieved in a multiferroic ScCrP2Se6 monolayer. Our theoretical results offer a new platform for the further study of 2D multiferroicity and nonvolatile magnetoelectric nanodevices.

Ultrafast Charge Transfer-Induced Unusual Nonlinear Optical Response in ReSe2/ReS2 Heterostructure.

Ultrafast charge transfer in van der Waals heterostructures can effectively engineer the optical and electrical properties of two-dimensional semiconductors for designing photonic and optoelectronic devices. However, the nonlinear absorption conversion dynamics with the pump intensity and the underlying physical mechanisms in a type-II heterostructure remain largely unexplored, yet hold considerable potential for all-optical logic gates. Herein, two-dimensional ReSe2/ReS2 heterostructure is designed to realize an unusual transition from reverse saturable absorption to saturable absorption (SA) with a conversion pump intensity threshold of approximately 170 GW/cm2. Such an intriguing phenomenon is attributed to the decrease of two-photon absorption (TPA) of ReS2 and the increase of SA of ReSe2 with the pump intensity. Based on the characterization results of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy, femtosecond transient absorption spectrum, Kelvin probe force microscopy, and density functional theory calculation, a type-II charge-transfer-energy level model is proposed combined with the TPA of ReS2 and SA of ReSe2 processes. The results reveal the critical role of ultrafast interfacial charge transfer in tuning the unusual nonlinear absorption and improving the SA of ReSe2/ReS2 under different excitation wavelengths. Our finding deepens the understanding of nonlinear absorption physical mechanisms in two-dimensional heterostructure materials, which may further diversify the nonlinear optical materials and photonic devices.

Probing the Temperature-Dependent Thermal Conductivity of Violet Phosphorus via Optothermal Raman Spectroscopy.

The temperature-dependent thermal conductivity of violet phosphorus on a perforated SiO2/Si substrate has been investigated via optothermal Raman spectroscopy. The obtained temperature coefficients of the Tg mode and Ptub mode of the violet phosphorus sample are -0.01268 and -0.01789 cm-1 K-1, respectively. On the basis of the temperature coefficients and power coefficients, the thermal conductivity of the violet phosphorus has been calculated to be 44.642 ± 4.995 W/mK at room temperature, which is higher than that of other two-dimensional materials such as black phosphorus and MoS2 due to the effect of boundary scattering and the phonon mean free path. Additionally, the thermal conductivity of violet phosphorus decreases as a power exponential function of the temperature, which is primarily associated with the phonon mean free path and phonon group velocity. This work provides a scientific foundation for thermal management and heat dissipation in designing micro-nano devices with violet phosphorus.

Multiple Dirac cones and Lifshitz transition in a two-dimensional Cairo lattice as a Hawking evaporation analogue.

The linear energy-momentum dispersion of Dirac cones offers a unique platform for mimicking the fantastical phenomena in high energy physics, such as Dirac fermions and black hole (BH) horizons. Three types of Dirac cones (I, III, and II) with different tilts have been proposed individually in specific materials but lack of integral lattice model. Here, we demonstrated the three types of Dirac cones inherited in aπ-conjugated Cairo lattice of double-degeneratedπandpzorbitals by means of tight-binding (TB) approach, which paves a way for the design of two-dimensional (2D) Dirac materials. From first-principles calculations, we predicted a candidate material,penta-NiSb2monolayer, to achieve these multiple Dirac cones and the Lifshitz transition between different Dirac cones driven by external biaxial strain. The coexistence of the three types of Dirac cones renderspenta-NiSb2monolayer a promising 2D fermionic analogue to simulate the event-horizon evaporation with a high Hawking temperature.

Floquet-Dirac fermions in monolayer graphene by Wannier functions.

Wannier functions have been widely applied in the study of topological properties and Floquet-Bloch bands of materials. Usually, the real-space Wannier functions are linked to thek-space Hamiltonian by two types of Fourier transform (FT), namely lattice-gauge FT (LGFT) and atomic-gauge FT (AGFT), but the differences between these two FTs on Floquet-Bloch bands have rarely been addressed. Taking monolayer graphene as an example, we demonstrate that LGFT gives different topological descriptions on the Floquet-Bloch bands for the structurally equivalent directions which are obviously unphysical, while AGFT is immune to this dilemma. We introduce the atomic-laser periodic effect to explain the different Floquet-Bloch bands between the LGFT and AGFT. Using AGFT, we showed that linearly polarized laser could effectively manipulate the properties of the Dirac fermions in graphene, such as the location, generation and annihilation of Dirac points. This proposal offers not only deeper understanding on the role of Wannier functions in solving the Floquet systems, but also a promising platform to study the interaction between the time-periodic laser field and materials.