Transmission gaps in phosphorene superlattice

TL;DR

This paper investigates how transmission gaps in phosphorene superlattices depend on structural parameters, revealing tunable electronic properties and the absence of Klein tunneling at normal incidence.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of transmission gaps in phosphorene superlattices and demonstrates how they can be controlled by physical parameters, unlike graphene.

Findings

Pseudo-gaps turn into real transmission gaps with more cells.

Transmission gaps are tunable by structural parameters.

No Klein tunneling occurs at normal incidence.

Abstract

Our research focuses on the transmission gaps of charge carriers passing through phosphorene superlattice, which are made up of a series of barriers and wells generating $n$ identical cells. We determine the solutions of the energy spectrum and then transmission using Bloch's theorem and the transfer-matrix approach. The analysis will be done on the impact of incident energy, barrier height, potential widths, period number, and transverse wave vector on transmission. We show that pseudo-gaps appear and turn into real transmission gaps by increasing the number of cells. Their number, width, and position can be tuned by changing the physical parameters of the structure. At normal incidence, a forbidden gap is found, meaning that there is no Klein tunneling effect, in contrast to the case of graphene. Our findings can be used to create a variety of phosphorene-based electronic devices.