Atomic bonding and electrical characteristics of two-dimensional graphene/boron nitride van der Waals heterostuctures with manufactured defects via binding energy and bond-charge model

TL;DR

This study investigates how manufacturing defects in graphene/BN heterostructures influence their atomic bonding and electrical properties, revealing the first observation of a flat band at the Fermi level due to defect engineering.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of the binding energy-bond-charge model to defect-engineered graphene/BN heterostructures, demonstrating the emergence of flat bands at the Fermi level.

Findings

Manufacturing defects induce a flat band at the Fermi level.

First report of flat band in defect graphene/BN heterostructures.

Defects significantly alter electronic properties.

Abstract

We used the binding energy-bond-charge model to study the atomic bonding and electrical properties of the two-dimensional graphene/BN van der Waals heterostructure. We manipulated its atomic bonding and electrical properties by manufacturing defects. We discovered that this process yielded a band structure with a flat band, i.e., a horizontal band structure without dispersion at the Fermi level. Thus, our research is significant because it is the first report on this flat band of defect graphene/BN van der Waals heterostructures.