Electronic Properties of Monolayer and van der Waals Bilayer of Janus TiClI

J Phys Chem Lett. 2021 Mar 11;12(9):2245-2251. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c00149. Epub 2021 Feb 26.

Abstract

In this work, the novel electronic properties of the Janus TiClI monolayer (ML) and van der Waals (vdW) bilayers (BLs) have been demonstrated. As a result of the strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC) together with the inversion symmetry breaking, the TiClI ML shows valley spin splitting of 62.67 meV at the K/K' point. In magnetic V- and Cr-doped TiClI MLs, sizable valley polarization of 36.70 and 45.35 meV occurs, respectively. TiClI vdW BLs indicate typical type-II band alignment with a quite large band offset (>500 meV), and interestingly, the interlayer-polarization PH is almost 100% for all considered stacking orders. In addition, the interlayer-polarization is insensitive to the interlayer distance. In this situation, the interlayer exciton and valley polarization lifetimes could be prolonged, and thus, TiClI vdW BLs provide new opportunities for light-energy conversion and valleytronics. As the interlayer distance decreases, the TiClI BLs of AB' and AB stacking indicate a semiconductor-to-metal transition and are characterized by hole-doping, and the doping concentration can be further tuned by changing the interlayer distance.