skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Large Bulk Photovoltaic Effect and Spontaneous Polarization of Single-Layer Monochalcogenides

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [5]
  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  2. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Kent State Univ., OH (United States)
  3. Centro de Investigaciones en Óptica, León (Mexico)
  4. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  5. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Kavli Energy Nanosciences Inst. at Berkeley, CA (United States)

Here, we use a first-principles density functional theory approach to calculate the shift current and linear absorption of uniformly illuminated single-layer Ge and Sn monochalcogenides. We predict strong absorption in the visible spectrum and a large effective three-dimensional shift current (~100 μA/V2), larger than has been previously observed in other polar systems. Moreover, we show that the integral of the shift-current tensor is correlated to the large spontaneous effective three-dimensional electric polarization (~1.9 C/m2). Our calculations indicate that the shift current will be largest in the visible spectrum, suggesting that these monochalcogenides may be promising for polar optoelectronic devices. A Rice-Mele tight-binding model is used to rationalize the shift-current response for these systems, and its dependence on polarization, in general terms with implications for other polar materials

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1544377
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1374455
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Vol. 119, Issue 6; ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 133 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (47)

Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple journal October 1996
High‐voltage bulk photovoltaic effect and the photorefractive process in LiNbO 3 journal August 1974
Thermoelectric properties of orthorhombic group IV–VI monolayers from the first-principles calculations journal January 2017
Theory of the bulk photovoltaic effect in pure crystals journal May 1981
Computational prediction of two-dimensional group-IV mono-chalcogenides journal July 2014
Polarization and valley switching in monolayer group-IV monochalcogenides journal July 2016
Direct band gaps in group IV-VI monolayer materials: Binary counterparts of phosphorene journal March 2016
Intrinsic Ferroelasticity and/or Multiferroicity in Two-Dimensional Phosphorene and Phosphorene Analogues journal April 2016
Design principles for shift current photovoltaics journal January 2017
Giant piezoelectricity of monolayer group IV monochalcogenides: SnSe, SnS, GeSe, and GeS journal October 2015
First-Principles Calculation of the Bulk Photovoltaic Effect in CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3 and CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3– x Cl x journal December 2014
Solution synthesis of GeS and GeSe nanosheets for high-sensitivity photodetectors journal January 2016
Anisotropic Spin Transport and Strong Visible-Light Absorbance in Few-Layer SnSe and GeSe journal September 2015
Extraordinary Sunlight Absorption and One Nanometer Thick Photovoltaics Using Two-Dimensional Monolayer Materials journal July 2013
Pseudopotentials for H to Kr optimized for gradient-corrected exchange-correlation functionals journal May 2005
Towards a quantum theory of polarization in ferroelectrics: The case of KNbO 3 journal February 1993
Topological Nature of Polarization and Charge Pumping in Ferroelectrics journal October 2004
Electrical polarization and orbital magnetization: the modern theories journal March 2010
Recent developments in the ABINIT software package journal August 2016
Hysteresis behaviors of barium titanate single crystals based on the operation of multiple 90° switching systems journal April 2009
Substantial bulk photovoltaic effect enhancement via nanolayering journal January 2016
First-principles study of spontaneous polarization in multiferroic Bi Fe O 3 journal January 2005
First-Principles Calculation of the Bulk Photovoltaic Effect in Bismuth Ferrite journal December 2012
First-Principles Materials Design of High-Performing Bulk Photovoltaics with the Li Nb O 3 Structure journal November 2015
Giant bulk photovoltaic effect in thin ferroelectric BaTiO 3 films journal October 2014
Physics and Applications of Bismuth Ferrite journal June 2009
First-principles calculation of the bulk photovoltaic effect in the polar compounds LiAsS2, LiAsSe2, and NaAsSe2 journal November 2014
Full band structure LDA and k p calculations of optical spin-injection journal November 2007
Polarization-dependent photocurrents in polar stacks of van der Waals solids journal December 2015
Single-Layer Single-Crystalline SnSe Nanosheets journal January 2013
Topological aspects of nonlinear excitonic processes in noncentrosymmetric crystals journal July 2016
Enhanced piezoelectricity and modified dielectric screening of two-dimensional group-IV monochalcogenides journal December 2015
Few-Layer Tin Sulfide: A New Black-Phosphorus-Analogue 2D Material with a Sizeable Band Gap, Odd–Even Quantum Confinement Effect, and High Carrier Mobility journal September 2016
First Principles Calculation of the Shift Current Photovoltaic Effect in Ferroelectrics journal September 2012
Ferroelectricity, Domain Structure, and Phase Transitions of Barium Titanate journal July 1950
Shift current bulk photovoltaic effect in polar materials—hybrid and oxide perovskites and beyond journal August 2016
Structural Phase Transition and Material Properties of Few-Layer Monochalcogenides journal December 2016
Ferroelectricity and Phase Transitions in Monolayer Group-IV Monochalcogenides journal August 2016
Strongly bound Mott-Wannier excitons in GeS and GeSe monolayers journal October 2016
Two-Dimensional Disorder in Black Phosphorus and Monochalcogenide Monolayers journal February 2016
Two-dimensional multiferroics in monolayer group IV monochalcogenides journal January 2017
Giant Improper Ferroelectricity in the Ferroaxial Magnet CaMn 7 O 12 journal February 2012
Flexible Solar Cells journal November 2008
First principles calculations of the Shift Current Bulk Photovoltaic Effect in Ferroelectrics text January 2012
Topological aspects of nonlinear excitonic processes in noncentrosymmetric crystals text January 2015
Strongly bound Mott-Wannier Excitons in GeS and GeSe monolayers text January 2016
Topological nature of polarization and charge pumping in ferroelectrics text January 2004

Cited By (33)

Growth of Large-Area SnS Films with Oriented 2D SnS Layers for Energy-Efficient Broadband Optoelectronics journal August 2018
Mutual Insight on Ferroelectrics and Hybrid Halide Perovskites: A Platform for Future Multifunctional Energy Conversion journal August 2019
Tunable Electronic Properties and Giant Spontaneous Polarization in Graphene/Monolayer GeS van der Waals Heterostructure journal June 2019
Progress and prospects in low-dimensional multiferroic materials journal January 2019
First-Principles Study of Strain Engineered Electronic Properties of GeSe-SnS Hetero-bilayer journal August 2019
Switchable magnetic bulk photovoltaic effect in the two-dimensional magnet CrI3 journal August 2019
One-dimensional flat bands in twisted bilayer germanium selenide journal February 2020
Releasing the hidden shift current in the TTF-CA organic molecular solid via symmetry lowering journal January 2020
Enhanced intrinsic photovoltaic effect in tungsten disulfide nanotubes journal June 2019
Systematic investigation of electrical contact barriers between different electrode metals and layered GeSe journal January 2019
Tuning ferroelectricity by charge doping in two-dimensional SnSe journal January 2020
Spatio-temporal dynamics of shift current quantum pumping by femtosecond light pulse journal March 2019
Towards photoferroic materials by design: recent progress and perspectives journal November 2019
Upper limit on shift current generation in extended systems journal August 2019
Strong bulk photovoltaic effect in chiral crystals in the visible spectrum journal December 2019
First-principles calculation of nonlinear optical responses by Wannier interpolation journal September 2017
Direct observation of shift and ballistic photovoltaic currents journal January 2019
Ferroicity-driven nonlinear photocurrent switching in time-reversal invariant ferroic materials journal August 2019
Wannier90 as a community code: new features and applications text January 2020
One-dimensional flat bands in twisted bilayer germanium selenide text January 2020
Wannier90 as a community code: New features and applications text January 2020
Wannier90 as a community code: new features and applications text January 2020
Wannier90 as a community code: new features and applications / Working Paper text January 2019
Quantitative relationship between polarization differences and the zone-averaged shift photocurrent text January 2017
Tuning the ferro- to para-electric transition temperature and dipole orientation of group-IV monochalcogenide monolayers text January 2017
Predicted bulk photovoltaic effect in hydrogenated Zintl compounds text January 2017
Spatio-temporal dynamics of shift current quantum pumping by femtosecond light pulse text January 2018
Ab initio calculation of the shift photocurrent by Wannier interpolation text January 2018
Diagrammatic approach to nonlinear optical response with application to Weyl semimetals text January 2018
Systematic investigation of electrical contact barriers between different electrode metals and layered GeSe text January 2019
Towards Photoferroic Materials by Design: Recent Progresses and Perspective text January 2019
Non-equilibrium nature of non-linear optical response: Application to the bulk photo voltaic effect text January 2019
Strong bulk photovoltaic effect in chiral crystal in the visible spectrum text January 2019

Similar Records

Injection current in ferroelectric group-IV monochalcogenide monolayers
Journal Article · Mon Nov 11 00:00:00 EST 2019 · Physical Review. B · OSTI ID:1544377

Strong second harmonic generation in two-dimensional ferroelectric IV-monochalcogenides
Journal Article · Fri Sep 08 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Journal of Physics. Condensed Matter · OSTI ID:1544377

InGaP solar cell on Ge-on-Si virtual substrate for novel solar power conversion
Journal Article · Mon Feb 26 00:00:00 EST 2018 · Journal of Applied Physics · OSTI ID:1544377