Zero Poisson' s Ratio and Suppressed Mechanical Anisotropy in BP/SnSe Van der Waals Heterostructure: A First-principles Study

TL;DR

This study uses first-principles calculations to reveal that BP/SnSe van der Waals heterostructures exhibit near-zero Poisson's ratio and significantly reduced mechanical anisotropy, differing from their parent materials.

Contribution

First-principles calculations demonstrate that BP/SnSe heterostructures have unique mechanical properties, including near-zero Poisson's ratio and suppressed anisotropy, not present in the individual materials.

Findings

Near-zero Poisson's ratio in BP/SnSe heterostructure

Suppressed mechanical anisotropy compared to parent materials

Potential for novel mechanical applications

Abstract

Black phosphorene and its analogs have attracted intensive attention due to their unique puckered structures, anisotropic characteristics, and negative Poisson's ratio. The van der Waals heterostructures assembly by stacking different materials may show novel physical properties which the parent materials don't possess. In this work, the first-principles calculations were performed to study the mechanical properties of the BP/SnSe van der Waals heterostructure. Interestingly, a near-zero Poisson's ratio vzx was found in BP/SnSe heterostructure. In addition, compared to the parent materials BP and SnSe with strong in-plane anisotropic mechanical properties, the BP/SnSe heterostructure shows strongly suppressed anisotropy. Our findings suggest that the vdW heterostructure could show quite different mechanical properties from the parent materials and provide new opportunities for the mechanical applications of the heterostructures.