paper

Interlayer interaction controlling the properties of AB- and AA-stacked bilayer graphene-like BCN and SiC

arXiv:2008.10888 · doi:10.1016/j.surfin.2020.100740

Abstract

We model bilayer graphene-like materials with SiC and BCN stoichiometry, where the interlayer interactions play important roles shaping the physical properties of the systems. We find the interlayer interaction in SiC to be repulsive due to the interaction of Si-Si atoms, and in BCN it is attractive due to B and N atoms for both the AA- and the AB-stacking. The repulsive interlayer interaction opens up a bandgap in SiC while the attractive interlayer interaction in BCN induces a small indirect bandgap or overlaping of the valence conduction bands. Furthermore, the repulsive interaction decreases the Young modulus while the attractive interaction does not influence the Young modulus much. The stress-strain curves of both the AA- and the AB-stackings are suppressed compared to pure graphine bilayers. The optical response of SiC is very sensitive to an applied electric field and an enrichment in the optical spectra is found at low energy. The enrichment is attributed to the bandgap opening and increased energy spacing between the bands. In BCN, the optical spectra are reduced due to the indirect bandgap or the overlapping of the bands. Last, a high Seebeck coefficient is observed due to the presence of a direct bandgap in SiC, while it is not much enhanced in BCN.

RevTeX, 11 pages with 5 included figures