# Tunable anisotropic behaviors in phosphorene under periodic potentials in arbitrary directions

## TL;DR

This paper theoretically explores how periodic potential superlattices can tune the anisotropic electronic and optical properties of monolayer phosphorene, enabling significant control over its behavior for device applications.

## Contribution

It demonstrates the ability to modulate phosphorene's anisotropic properties via superlattice strength and orientation, a novel approach for device tuning.

## Key findings

- Energy spectra can be tuned by superlattice parameters.
- Optical absorption can be modulated by over an order of magnitude.
- Anisotropic effective mass is systematically controlled.

## Abstract

We investigate theoretically the anisotropic electronic and optical behaviors of a monolayer black phosphorus (phosphorene) modulated by periodic potential superlattices in arbitrary directions. We demonstrate that different strength and orientation of the phosphorene potential superlattice can give rise to distinct energy spectra, i.e., tuning the intrinsic electronic anisotropy. Accordingly, the anisotropic effective mass, and optical absorption modulated by superlattice strength and orientation are addressed systematically. This feature enables tuning capability more than one order of magnitude in the optical absorption spectrum. Our findings should be useful in building phosphorene optical and (opto)electronic devices by applying external potential superlattice.