Anisotropic Pseudospin Tunneling in Two-Dimensional Black Phosphorus Junctions

TL;DR

This paper explores how the anisotropic pseudospin structure of black phosphorus influences interband tunneling in lateral junctions, revealing direction-dependent tunneling effects and potential for high-performance device applications.

Contribution

It demonstrates the directional dependence of interband tunneling in black phosphorus due to pseudospin alignment and introduces the behavior of tunneling in band-gap inverted BP with Dirac cones.

Findings

Interband tunneling is highly effective when armchair direction is normal to the interface.

Interband tunneling is suppressed when zigzag direction is normal to the interface.

Intravalley tunneling in inverted BP is Klein-like regardless of junction direction.

Abstract

We investigate the role of pseudospin structure of few-layer black phosphorus (BP) in interband tunneling properties in lateral BP junctions. We find that interband tunneling is critically dependent on junction directions because of the anisotropic pseudospin structure of BP. When the armchair direction of BP is normal to the interface, pseudospins of incident and transmitted carriers are nearly aligned so that interband tunneling is highly effective, analogous to the Klein tunneling in graphene. However, when the zigzag direction is normal to the interface, interband tunneling is suppressed by misaligned pseudospins. We also study junctions of band-gap inverted BP where the electronic structure is characterized by two Dirac cones. In this case, intervalley tunneling is prohibited either by momentum conservation or by pseudospin mismatch while intravalley tunneling is Klein-like irrespective of the junction direction. These results provide a foundation for developing high-performance devices from BP and other pseudospin materials.