Water activated doping and transport in multilayered germanane crystals

The synthesis of germanane (GeH) has opened the door for covalently functionalizable 2D materials in electronics. Herein, we demonstrate that GeH can be electronically doped by incorporating stoichiometric equivalents of phosphorus dopant atoms into the CaGe2 precursor. The electronic properties of these doped materials show significant atmospheric sensitivity, and we observe a reduction in resistance by up to three orders of magnitude when doped samples are measured in water-containing atmospheres. This variation in resistance is a result of water activation of the phosphorus dopants. Transport measurements in different contact geometries show a significant anisotropy between in-plane and out-of-plane resistances, with a much larger out-of-plane resistance. These measurements along with finite element modeling results predict that the current distribution in top-contacted crystals is restricted to only the topmost, water activated crystal layers. Taken together, these results pave the way for future electronic and optoelectronic applications utilizing group IV graphane analogues.