Quan Wenzhi, Hong Can, Pan Shuangyuan, Hu Jingyi, Wu Qilong, Zhang Zehui, Zhou Fan, Zheng Feipeng, Zhu Zhili, Zhang Yanfeng
Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China.
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2023 Mar 29;15(12):16144-16152. doi: 10.1021/acsami.2c20400. Epub 2023 Mar 17.
As an emerging member of monoelemental two-dimensional (2D) materials, 2D tellurium (tellurene) has recently attracted intensive attention due to its polymorphism arising from the multivalent nature and fascinating properties such as wide-range band gaps, high carrier mobilities, etc. Herein, we predict the formation of a rectangular-phase tellurene on Ni(111) by first-principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations and realize its direct syntheses and characterizations by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). We reveal that the monolayer rectangular tellurene and underlying Ni(111) substrate are strongly coupled, along with good lattice registry along two mutually perpendicular directions, which serves as the key driving force for the tellurene formation. We also uncover the unique morphological transitions of Te/Ni(111) from rectangular tellurene monolayer, to uniform periodic striped patterns at the second layer, and then to thick striped patterns. This work should offer valuable insights for the substrate-mediated syntheses of monoelemental 2D materials, thus propelling their phase engineering and intriguing property explorations.
作为单元素二维（2D）材料的新兴成员，二维碲（碲烯）由于其多价性质引起的多态性以及诸如宽范围带隙、高载流子迁移率等迷人特性，最近受到了广泛关注。在此，我们通过第一性原理密度泛函理论（DFT）计算预测了在Ni(111)上形成矩形相碲烯，并通过分子束外延（MBE）和扫描隧道显微镜（STM）实现了其直接合成与表征。我们发现单层矩形碲烯与底层的Ni(111)衬底强烈耦合，并且在两个相互垂直的方向上具有良好的晶格匹配，这是碲烯形成的关键驱动力。我们还揭示了Te/Ni(111)独特的形态转变，从矩形碲烯单层，到第二层的均匀周期性条纹图案，再到厚条纹图案。这项工作应为单元素二维材料的衬底介导合成提供有价值的见解，从而推动其相工程和有趣性质的探索。
