Striking Differences in Regulating Effects on Electronic Transport of 2D Iodine-Based Devices from Metal and Nonmetal...

Two-dimensional iodine-based materials, characterized by unique structures and properties, hold immense potential in electronics. Here, research indicates that doping metal/nonmetal dopants with small atomic numbers can substantially improve the equilibrium electronic transport of the new-type 2D iodine-based device. Unlike metal dopants, such enhancement from nonmetallic dopants varies greatly among elements, including sites. N doping remarkably exhibits the best enhancement. Essentially, small site doping, especially nonmetallic dopants, shows strong orbital hybridization with effective overlap, resulting in optimized distribution of electronic states and electrostatic potential and the formation of more efficient conduction channels, further enhancing the density of states (DOS) and electron transmission. In nonequilibrium, all dopants generally enhance conductance under lower biases but weaken conductance under higher biases. Such enhancement is much more pronounced in nonmetallic-doped devices in small sites, and in metallic elements, it is only achieved in Al. These devices all show increased currents with bias. The current of the undoped device can be weakened by doping metallic elements at higher voltages. At any voltage, N-small doping always maintains the optimal enhancement on current, and Mg doping almost retains the best weakening effect. Findings provide valuable theoretical guidance for such a 2D iodine material in high-performance tunable electronic devices and sensors.