A review of bipolar magnetic semiconductors from theoretical aspects

Spintronics, which employs electrons' spin degree of freedom in data storage and transmission, acts as a promising candidate for next-generation information technology owing to its improved processing speed and reduced power consumption. To seek and design materials with highly spin polarized carriers and find an efficient way to control the spin polarization direction of carriers are critical and urgent to spintronics applications. In this aspect, the bipolar magnetic semiconductor (BMS) serves as an ideal solution since it can generate currents with 100% spin polarization, and the direction of spin polarization is easily tunable by an external gate voltage. Up to now, there have been lots of BMSs predicted by first-principles calculations, however, most of them are extrinsically induced by chemical or physical modifications, and a generalized scheme for designing BMS materials is still lacking. This paper is aimed to briefly review the existing BMS materials designed by theoretical simulations, analyze the main obstacles to experimental realization, and put forward suggestions for future development.

Single s-block and p-block metal sites for photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants and hydrogen evolution

Photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants combined with hydrogen evolution is an effective way to solve the energy crisis and environmental problems. In this work, single s-block (IA group and IIA...

Recent progress in 2D group IV-IV monochalcogenides: synthesis, properties and applications

Coordination-related, 2D structural phase transitions are a fascinating facet of 2D materials with structural degeneracy. Phosphorene and its new phases, exhibiting unique electronic properties, have received considerable attention. The 2D group IV-IV monochalcogenides (i.e. GeS, GeSe, SnS and SnSe) like black phosphorous possess puckered layered orthorhombic structure. The 2D group IV-IV monochalcogenides with advantages of earth-abundance, less toxicity, environmental compatibility and chemical stability, can be widely used in optoelectronics, piezoelectrics, photodetectors, sensors, Li-batteries and thermoelectrics. In this review, we summarized recent research progress in theory and experiment, which studies the fundamental properties, applications and fabrication of 2D group IV-IV monochalcogenides and their new phases, and brings new perspectives and challenges for the future of this emerging field.

Enhanced photocatalytic activity for water splitting of blue-phase GeS and GeSe monolayers via biaxial straining

The structural, electronic, dipole-induced internal electric field, optical and photocatalytic properties of monolayer GeS and GeSe under external biaxial strain were investigated by using first-principles calculations. The monolayer GeS and GeSe are indirect semiconductors with the band gaps of 3.265 eV and 2.993 eV, respectively. The band alignment of the monolayer GeS and GeSe manifests the photocatalytic activity for water splitting. Especially, it is effective to tune the properties including structures, band gaps, surface potential difference, dipole moment P, dipole-induced internal electric field, absorption and photocatalytic activity of the monolayer GeS and GeSe via biaxial strain. Our results suggest that monolayer GeS and GeSe possess photocatalytic properties for water splitting, and strain engineering, especially tensile strain, can enhance the photocatalytic activity under ultraviolet and visible light.

Temperature dependent optical properties of red emitting Na3GaF6:Mn4+ as a color converter for warm white LEDs

This work presents and disentangles the temperature dependent optical properties of the red-emitting phosphor Na3GaF6:Mn4+. Moreover, crystal field and Racah parameters were investigated. It was proven that the material is suitable for the application in warm white LEDs due to its high quantum yield of about 83%, little thermal quenching of the photoluminescence up to 410 K, high lumen equivalent of about 220 lm/W, and strong absorption at 450 nm. In addition, different DFT approaches were used to investigate its band structure. The calculated data were compared to those obtained experimentally. Red phosphor spectra were calculated to evaluate the suitability of red line-emitting phosphors for the application in warm white emitting pcLEDs. Finally, warm white emitting LEDs comprising Na3GaF6:Mn4+ were constructed in order to show the potential of Na3GaF6:Mn4+ serving as a red component in phosphor blends for future warm white pcLEDs.

Tuning the electronic properties of bilayer group-IV monochalcogenides by stacking order, strain and an electric field: a computational study

As the isoelectronic counterpart of phosphorene, monolayer group IV–VI binary MX (M = Ge, Sn; X = Se, S) compounds have drawn considerable attention in recent years.

The effect of vacancies and the substitution of p-block atoms on single-layer buckled germanium selenide

This paper investigates the effect of point defects of both hole (Ge, Se) and substitution doping of p-block elements, in single-layer b-GeSe, based on first principles plane wave calculations within spin-polarized density functional theory.