The Electronic Structure of Ga-Doped Hydrogen-Passivated Germanene: First Principle Study

Abstract

Germanene, which has the same structure as graphene, is an exciting novel 2D functionalized material that controls its band gap using functionalization. The effects of the Ga atom and hydrogen atoms on the structure of Ga-doped H-passivated germanene were investigated with a density functional theory (DFT) calculation. H-passivated germanene has a direct gap of 2.10 eV. Opening the band gap in the H-passivated germanene is due to transition from sp2 to sp3 orbital. Adsorption of the Ga adatom on H-site decrease the band gap to 1.38 eV. No interaction between Ga atoms and Hydrogen atoms was observed. Hence, their effects on the band structure of hydrogenated graphene were independent of each other. Our results suggest that hydrogen passivation combined with adsorption of the Ga adatoms could effectively control the band gap of germanene.