English

Interlayer decoupling in twisted bilayers of $\beta$-phosphorus and arsenic: a computational study

Materials Science 2019-05-20 v1

Abstract

We investigate magnetism and band structure engineering in Moir\'e superlattice of blue phosphorus (β\beta-P) and grey arsenene (β\beta-As) bilayers, using \textit{ab initio} calculations. The electronic states near the valence and conduction band edges have significant pzp_z character in both the bilayers. Thus, twisting the layers significantly reduce the interlayer orbital overlap, leading to a decrease in the binding energy (up to 33%\sim33\%) and an increase in interlayer distance (up to 10%\sim10\%), compared to the most stable AA-stacking. This interlayer decoupling also results in a notable increase (up to \sim25-50\%) of the bandgap of twisted bilayers, with the valance band edge becoming relatively flat with van-Hove singularities in the density of states. Thus, hole doping induces a Stoner instability, leading to ferromagnetic ground state, which is more robust in Moir\'e superlattices, than that of AA-stacked β\beta-P and β\beta-As.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1905.05951,
  title  = {Interlayer decoupling in twisted bilayers of $\beta$-phosphorus and arsenic: a computational study},
  author = {Shantanu Agnihotri and Maneesh Kumar and Yogesh Singh Chauhan and Amit Agarwal and Somnath Bhowmick},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1905.05951},
  year   = {2019}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T09:06:53.894Z