First principles study on structural, electronic and optical properties of HfS_2(1-Se₂ and ZrS_2(1-Se₂ ternary alloys

Alloying 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) with dopants to achieve ternary alloys is as an efficient and scalable solution for tuning the electronic and optical properties of two-dimensional materials. This study provides a comprehensive study on the electronic and optical properties of ternary HfS_2(1-Se₂₍ and ZrS_2(1-Se₂₍ [0 ≤ x ≤ 1] alloys, by employing density functional theory calculations along with random phase approximation. Phonon dispersions were also obtained by using density functional perturbation theory. The results indicate that both of the studied ternary families are stable and the increase of Selenium concentration in HfS_2(1-Se₂₍ and ZrS_2(1-Se₂₍ alloys results in a linear decrease of the electronic bandgap from 2.15 (ev) to 1.40 (ev) for HfS_2(1-Se₂₍ and 1.94 (ev) to 1.23 (ev) for ZrS_2(1-Se₂₍ based on the HSE06 functional. Increasing the Se concentration in the ternary alloys results in a red shift of the optical absorption spectra such that the main absorption peaks of HfS_2(1-Se₂₍ and ZrS_2(1-Se₂₍ cover a broad visible range from 3.153 to 2.607 eV and 2.405 to 1.908 eV, respectively. The studied materials appear to be excellent base materials for tunable electronic and optoelectronic devices in the visible range.