DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Frustration and Atomic Ordering in a Monolayer Semiconductor Alloy

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters

Frustrated interactions can lead to short-range ordering arising from incompatible interactions of fundamental physical quantities with the underlying lattice. The simplest example is the triangular lattice of spins with antiferromagnetic interactions, where the nearest-neighbor spin-spin interactions cannot simultaneously be energy minimized. In this work, we show that engineering frustrated interactions is a possible route for controlling structural and electronic phenomena in semiconductor alloys. Using aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy in conjunction with density functional theory calculations, we demonstrate atomic ordering in a two-dimensional semiconductor alloy as a result of the competition between geometrical constraints and nearest-neighbor interactions. Statistical analyses uncover the presence of short-range ordering in the lattice. In addition, we show how the induced ordering can be used as another degree of freedom to considerably modify the band gap of monolayer semiconductor alloys.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; DMR-1807233; DMR-1926004; AC02-05-CH11231
OSTI ID:
1607414
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1603741
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Vol. 124, Issue 9; ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 19 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (31)

Grains and grain boundaries in highly crystalline monolayer molybdenum disulphide journal May 2013
Structurally ordered intermetallic platinum–cobalt core–shell nanoparticles with enhanced activity and stability as oxygen reduction electrocatalysts journal October 2012
Enhanced strength and ductility in a high-entropy alloy via ordered oxygen complexes journal November 2018
Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple journal October 1996
Freestanding van der Waals Heterostructures of Graphene and Transition Metal Dichalcogenides journal May 2015
Antiferromagnetism. The Triangular Ising Net journal July 1950
Directed assembly of Ru nanoclusters on Ru(0001)-supported graphene: STM studies and atomistic modeling journal August 2012
Ordering‐induced changes in the optical spectra of semiconductor alloys journal January 1988
Role and effective treatment of dispersive forces in materials: Polyethylene and graphite crystals as test cases journal April 2009
Stable Monolayer Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Ordered Alloys with Tunable Electronic Properties journal February 2016
QUANTUM ESPRESSO: a modular and open-source software project for quantum simulations of materials journal September 2009
Ground state spin orderings of the triangular Ising model with the nearest and next nearest neighbor interaction journal January 1974
Geometric frustration in buckled colloidal monolayers journal December 2008
Defect Coupling and Sub-Angstrom Structural Distortions in W 1– x Mo x S 2 Monolayers journal April 2017
Complex Ordered Patterns in Mechanical Instability Induced Geometrically Frustrated Triangular Cellular Structures journal March 2014
Layer-Dependent Electronic Structure of Atomically Resolved Two-Dimensional Gallium Selenide Telluride journal February 2019
Antiferromagnetic Ising Model on a Triangular Lattice journal September 1984
Semiempirical GGA-type density functional constructed with a long-range dispersion correction journal January 2006
Atomic ordering in Ga 0.47 In 0.53 As and Ga x In 1 − x As y P 1 − y alloy semiconductors journal June 1987
Atomic ordering in III/V semiconductor alloys journal July 1991
Short- and long-range-order effects on the electronic properties of III-V semiconductor alloys journal April 1995
Monte Carlo study of a compressible Ising antiferromagnet on a triangular lattice journal May 1996
Dislocation motion and grain boundary migration in two-dimensional tungsten disulphide journal September 2014
Equation of State Calculations by Fast Computing Machines journal June 1953
Visualization and quantification of transition metal atomic mixing in Mo1−xWxS2 single layers journal January 2013
Theory of Ferroelectric ZrO 2 Monolayers on Si journal May 2019
2-Dimensional Transition Metal Dichalcogenides with Tunable Direct Band Gaps: MoS 2(1-x) Se 2x Monolayers journal December 2013
Spontaneous Formation of Atomically Thin Stripes in Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Monolayers journal October 2016
Order-disorder phase transitions in the two-dimensional semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenide alloys Mo1−xWxX2 (X = S, Se and Te) journal October 2014
Tunable Band Gap Photoluminescence from Atomically Thin Transition-Metal Dichalcogenide Alloys journal April 2013
Monolayer behaviour in bulk ReS2 due to electronic and vibrational decoupling journal February 2014