Premium
Density Functional Theory Calculations Revealing Metal‐like Band Structures and Work Function Variation for Ultrathin Gallium Arsenide (111) Surface Layers
Author(s) -
Tan ChihShan,
Huang Michael H.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
chemistry – an asian journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.18
H-Index - 106
eISSN - 1861-471X
pISSN - 1861-4728
DOI - 10.1002/asia.201900597
Subject(s) - density functional theory , gallium arsenide , fermi level , electronic band structure , materials science , condensed matter physics , band gap , work function , electronic structure , band bending , density of states , semimetal , electron , molecular physics , chemistry , metal , physics , computational chemistry , quantum mechanics , metallurgy
Density functional theory (DFT) calculations have been performed on tunable numbers of gallium arsenide (100), (110), and (111) planes for their electron density of states (DOS) plots and the corresponding band diagrams. The GaAs (100) and (110) planes show the same semiconducting band structure with tunable plane layers and a band gap of 1.35 eV around the Fermi level. In contrast, metal‐like band structures are obtained with a continuous band structure around the Fermi level for 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, and 8 layers of GaAs (111) planes. For 3, 6, and 9 GaAs (111) planes, the same semiconducting band structure as seen in the (100) and (110) planes returns. The results suggest the GaAs {111} face should be more electrically conductive than its {100} and {110} faces, due to the merged conduction band and valence band. GaAs (100) and (110) planes give a fixed work function, but the (111) planes have variable work function values that are smaller than that obtained for the (100) and (110) planes. Furthermore, bond length, bond geometry, and frontier orbital electron number and energy distribution show notable differences between the metal‐like and semiconducting plane cases, so the emergence of plane‐dependent electronic properties have quantum mechanical origin at the orbital level. GaAs should possess similar facet‐dependent electronic properties to those of Si and Ge.