Effects of Graphene/BN Encapsulation, Surface Functionalization and Molecular Adsorption on the Electronic Properties of Layered InSe: A First-Principles Study

TL;DR

This study uses first-principles calculations to explore how encapsulation, surface functionalization, and molecular adsorption influence the electronic properties of layered InSe, revealing tunable charge transfer, band gap modulation, and spin polarization effects.

Contribution

It provides new insights into how various encapsulation and functionalization strategies can modulate InSe's electronic properties for nanoelectronic applications.

Findings

Graphene acts as a donor, BN as an acceptor, with opposite charge transfer trends.

Interlayer distance changes can effectively tune the InSe band gap.

Certain molecules and dopants induce spin polarization and alter conduction types.

Abstract

By using first-principles calculations, we investigated the effects of graphene/boron nitride (BN) encapsulation, surface functionalization by metallic elements (K, Al, Mg and typical transition metals) and molecules (tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) and tetracyanoethylene (TCNE)) on the electronic properties of layered indium selenide (InSe). It was found that an opposite trend of charge transfer is possible for graphene (donor) and BN (acceptor), which is dramatically different from phosphorene where both graphene and BN play the same role (donor). For InSe/BN heterostructure, a change of the interlayer distance due to an out-of-plane compression can effectively modulate the band gap. Strong acceptor abilities to InSe were found for the TCNE and TCNQ molecules. For K, Al and Mg-doped monolayer InSe, the charge transfer from K and Al atoms to the InSe surface was observed, causing an n-type conduction of InSe, while p-type conduction of InSe observed in case of the Mg-doping. The atomically thin structure of InSe enables the possible observation and utilization of the dopant-induced vertical electric field across the interface. A proper adoption of the n- or p-type dopants allows for the modulation of the work function, the Fermi level pinning, the band bending, and the photo-adsorbing efficiency near the InSe surface/interface. Investigation on the adsorption of transition metal atoms on InSe showed that Ti-, V-, Cr-, Mn-, Co-adsorbed InSe are spin-polarized, while Ni-, Cu-, Pd-, Ag- and Au-adsorbed InSe are non-spin-polarized. Our results shed lights on the possible ways to protect InSe structure and modulate its electronic properties for nanoelectronics and electrochemical device applications.