Can freestanding Xene monolayers behave as excitonic insulators?

TL;DR

This paper predicts that freestanding monolayer Xenes can transition from a semiconductor to an excitonic insulator phase under a critical electric field, with implications for their electronic properties.

Contribution

It introduces the prediction of a tunable phase transition to an excitonic insulator in freestanding Xenes induced by electric fields, highlighting the role of dielectric environment.

Findings

Phase transition from semiconductor to excitonic insulator predicted

Coexistence of semiconducting and EI phases for different excitons

Dielectric environment prevents EI phase in supported Xenes

Abstract

We predict a phase transition in freestanding monolayer Xenes from the semiconducting phase to the excitonic insulating (EI) phase can be induced by reducing an external electric field below some critical value which is unique to each material. The splitting of the conduction and valence bands due to spin-orbit coupling at non-zero electric fields leads to the formation of $A$ and $B$ excitons in the larger or smaller band gap, with correspondingly larger or smaller binding energies. Our calculations show the coexistence of the semiconducting phase of $A$ excitons with the EI phase of $B$ excitons for a particular range of electric field. The dielectric environment precludes the existence of the EI phase in supported or encapsulated monolayer Xenes.