Band structures and contact points in phosphorene superlattice

TL;DR

This paper investigates the electronic band structures of phosphorene superlattices, revealing how periodic potentials create additional Dirac points and how barrier parameters can tune electronic properties for device applications.

Contribution

It introduces a method to analyze dispersion relations in phosphorene superlattices and demonstrates control over contact points via potential parameters, advancing understanding of their electronic behavior.

Findings

Periodic potential induces additional Dirac points.

Energy near contact points exhibits linear dispersion.

Barrier height and width tune energy gaps and contact points.

Abstract

We study the band structures and the associated contact points for a phosphorene superlattice made up of two periodic areas. We use the boundary conditions to extract an equation describing the dispersion relation after obtaining the eigen-wavefunctions. We show that energy transforms into linear behavior near contact points, and fermions move at different speeds along $x$- and $y$- directions. It was discovered that the periodic potential caused additional Dirac points, which we located in $k$-space by establishing their positions. We demonstrate that the barrier height and width can be used to adjust the energy gap and modify the contact points. It might be that our findings will be useful in the development of phosphorene-based electronic devices.