Understanding Disorder in 2D Materials: The Case of Carbon Doping of Silicene

We investigate the effect of lattice disorder and local correlation effects in finite and periodic silicene structures caused by carbon doping using first-principles calculations. For both finite and periodic silicene structures, the electronic properties of carbon-doped monolayers are dramatically changed by controlling the doping sites in the structures, which is related to the amount of disorder introduced in the lattice and electron-electron correlation effects. By changing the position of the carbon dopants, we found that a Mott-Anderson transition is achieved. Moreover, the band gap is determined by the level of lattice disorder and electronic correlation effects. Finally, these structures are ferromagnetic even under disorder which has potential applications in Si-based nanoelectronics, such as field-effect transistors (FETs).