Investigation of new two-dimensional materials derived from stanene

Abstract

In this study, we have explored new structures which are derived from stanene. In these new proposed structures, half of the Sn atoms, every other Sn atom in two-dimensional (2D) buckled hexagonal stanene structure, are replaced with a group- IV atom, namely C, Si or Ge. So, we investigate the structural, electronic and optical properties of SnC, SnGe and SnSi by means of density functional theory based first-principles calculations. Based on our structure optimization calculations, we conclude that while SnC assumes almost flat structure, the other ones have buckled geometry like stanene. In terms of the cohesive energy, SnC is the most stable structure among them. The electronic properties of these structures strongly depend on the substituted atom. We found that SnC is a large indirect band gap semiconductor, but SnSi and SnGe are direct band gap ones. Optical properties are investigated for two different polarization of light. In all structures considered in this study, the optical properties are anisotropic with respect to the polarization of light. While optical properties exhibit features at low energies for parallel polarization, there is sort of broad band at higher energies after 5 eV for perpendicular polarization of the light. This anisotropy is due to the 2D nature of the structures. © 2017 Elsevier B.V.