High mobility and excellent thermoelectric performance monolayer ZnXZ (X = In, Al, Ga; Z = S, Se, Te) materials.

Recently, two-dimensional (2D) layered polarized ZnInS nanosheets have been successfully synthesized in experiments. However, the polarized monolayers are unstable in air, which hinders their practical applications. Therefore, in this work, we proposed a new family of nonpolarized monolayers (β-phase) ZnXZ (X = In, Al, and Ga; Z = S, Se, and Te) by first-principles. It is confirmed that the energies of β-phase ZnXZ are lower than those of the polarized and β-phase ZnXZ monolayers. Moreover, these ZnXZ monolayers have not only desirable indirect band gaps but also high electron mobility (up to 10 cm V s), revealing a fascinating visible light absorption range. Furthermore, β-phase ZnXTe (X = In, Al, and Ga) has ultra-low lattice thermal conductivity and high value (up to 0.89), suggesting that these monolayers can be good candidates for thermoelectric materials. These new 2D ternary monolayers not only effectively broaden the family of 2D materials but also provide promising candidates for optoelectronic and thermoelectric materials.