Substrate suppression of oxidation process in pnictogen monolayers

TL;DR

This study uses ab initio calculations to analyze oxidation mechanisms in pnictogen monolayers, revealing substrate effects, spin transitions, and the influence of spin-orbit coupling on oxidation stability.

Contribution

It provides new insights into how SiC substrates enhance oxidation resistance and the role of spin transitions and spin-orbit coupling in the process.

Findings

SiC substrate reduces oxidation time scale.

Spin-orbit coupling affects oxidation mechanisms.

Supported systems show increased oxidation barriers.

Abstract

2D materials present an interesting platform for device designs. However, oxidation can drastically change the system's properties, which need to be accounted for. Through {\it ab initio} calculations, we investigated freestanding and SiC-supported As, Sb, and Bi mono-elemental layers. The oxidation process occurs through an O$_2$ spin-state transition, accounted for within the Landau-Zener transition. Additionally, we have investigated the oxidation barriers and the role of spin-orbit coupling. Our calculations pointed out that the presence of SiC substrate reduces the oxidation time scale compared to a freestanding monolayer. We have extracted the energy barrier transition, compatible with our spin-transition analysis. Besides, spin-orbit coupling is relevant to the oxidation mechanisms and alters time scales. The energy barriers decrease as the pnictogen changes from As to Sb to Bi for the freestanding systems, while for SiC-supported, they increase across the pnictogen family. Our computed energy barriers confirm the enhanced robustness against oxidation for the SiC-supported systems.