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Updated: Apr 1, 2026

Probe Type II Band Alignment in One-Dimensional Van Der Waals Heterostructures Using First-Principles Calculations
Published on: October 12, 2019
Anisotropic Effective Mass, Optical Property, and Enhanced Band Gap in BN/Phosphorene/BN Heterostructures
1Department of Physics, Pukyong National University , Busan 608-737, Korea.
Abstract:
Phosphorene is receiving great research interests because of its peculiar physical properties. Nonetheless, the phosphorus has a trouble of degradation due to oxidation. Hereby, we propose that the electrical and optical anisotropic properties can be preserved by encapsulating into hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN). We found that the h-BN contributed to enhancing the band gap of the phosphorene layer. Comparing the band gap of the pristine phosphorene layer, the band gap of the phosphorene/BN(1ML) system was enhanced by 0.15 eV. It was further enhanced by 0.31 eV in the BN(1ML)/phosphorene/BN(1ML) trilayer structure. However, the band gap was not further enhanced when we increased the thickness of the h-BN layers even up to 4 MLs. Interestingly, the anisotropic effective mass and optical property were still preserved in BN/phosphorene/BN heterostructures. Overall, we predict that the capping of phosphorene by the h-BN layers can be an excellent solution to protect the intrinsic properties of the phosphorene.
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