Staggering transport of edge states and symmetry analysis of electronic and optical properties of stanene.

Abstract

As one of the most intriguing elemental 2D materials beyond graphene, stanene is a unique material possessing strong quantum spin Hall effect and is promising for spintronics applications. Since most of these exotic phenomena are associated with the edge states of stanene and their responses under external stimuli, here, we first investigate the electronic and transport behavior of the edge states of stanene. Through examining the acoustic phonon-limited scattering of transporting carriers, we reveal a staggering behavior in the effective mass and mobility varying with the width of stanene nanoribbons. Remarkably, an opposite oscillating trend of the quantum confinement effect with respect to the electrons and holes is found and this trend is in sharp contrast to graphene. Moreover, through group-theory analysis, we further analyze the symmetry-permitted light absorptions and predict a much smaller band gap at Γ compared with other IV-group 2D materials like graphene and silicene, allowing for a red-shift of optical π-π* absorption in stanene. The presence of the narrow flat bands along the M-K path in stanene suggests appreciable density of states of low-energy carriers and a strong light-matter interaction for low-energy photons, which are beneficial for its applications in low-frequency optoelectronics.