Few-layer antimonene electrical properties

Abstract

Antimonene -- a single layer of antimony atoms -- and its few layer forms are among the latest additions to the 2D mono-elemental materials family. Numerous predictions and experimental evidence of its remarkable properties including (opto)electronic, energetic or biomedical, among others, together with its robustness under ambient conditions, have attracted the attention of the scientific community. However, experimental evidence of its electrical properties is still lacking. Here, we characterized the electronic properties of mechanically exfoliated flakes of few-layer (FL) antimonene of different thicknesses (~ 2-40 nm) through photoemission electron microscopy, kelvin probe force microscopy and transport measurements, which allows us to estimate a sheet resistance of ~ 1200 $\Omega$sq${}^{-1}$ and a mobility of ~ 150 cm${}^2$V${}^{-1}$s${}^{-1}$ in ambient conditions, independent of the flake thickness. Alternatively, our theoretical calculations indicate that topologically protected surface states (TPSS) should play a key role in the electronic properties of FL antimonene, which supports our experimental findings. We anticipate our work will trigger further experimental studies on TPSS in FL antimonene thanks to its simple structure and significant stability in ambient environments.

References in corpus (10)

• Quantum ESPRESSO: a modular and open-source software project for quantum simulations of materials
• Topological Insulators with Inversion Symmetry
• A topological Dirac insulator in a quantum spin Hall phase : Experimental observation of first strong topological insulator
• First direct observation of Spin-textures in Topological Insulators : Spin-resolved ARPES as a probe of topological quantum spin Hall effect and Berry's phase
• Anomalies in thickness measurements of graphene and few layer graphite crystals by tapping mode atomic force microscopy
• Mechanical Isolation of Highly Stable Antimonene under Ambient Conditions
• Atomically thin group-V elemental films: theoretical investigations of antimonene allotropes
• Performance of arsenene and antimonene double-gate MOSFETs from first principles
• AFM manipulation of gold nanowires to build electrical circuits
• Surface-dominated Conductivity of Few-layered Antimonene