Enhanced thermopower of gated silicene

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the thermopower of silicene systems in an external electric field perpendicular to the silicene sheet. In the absence of the field, we estimate that the thermopower of pure silicene is of order ∼80 μV/K. When a finite field is applied, a comparatively big band gap is opened and the thermopower is thus enhanced by several times as compared with the case without the field. The effect of disorder is also studied, and we find only minimal difference.