Department Of Physics
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Item First principles study of 2D ring-Te and its electrical contact with a topological Dirac semimetal(Royal Society of Chemistry, 2023-02-10T00:00:00) Singh, Jaspreet; Kumar, AshokIn recent years, researchers have manifested their interest in two-dimensional (2D) mono-elemental materials of group-VI elements because of their excellent optoelectronic, photovoltaic and thermoelectric properties. Despite the intensive recent research efforts, there is still a possibility of novel 2D allotropes of these elements due to their multivalency nature. Here, we have predicted a novel 2D allotrope of tellurium (ring-Te) using density functional theory. Its stability is confirmed by phonon and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations. Ring-Te has an indirect band gap of 0.69 eV (1.16 eV) at the PBE (HSE06) level of theories and undergoes an indirect-direct band gap transition under tensile strain. The higher carrier mobility of holes (?103 cm2 V?1 s?1), good UV-visible light absorption ability and low exciton binding (?0.35 eV) of ring-Te give rise to its potential applications in optoelectronic devices. Furthermore, the electrical contact of ring-Te with a topological Dirac semimetal (sq-Te) under the influence of an electric field shows that the Schottky barriers and contact types can undergo transition from p-type to n-type Schottky contact and then to ohmic contact at a higher electric field. Our study provides an insight into the physics of designing high-performance electrical coupled devices composed of 2D semiconductors and topological semimetals. � 2023 The Royal Society of Chemistry.Item Janus ?-Te2X (X = S, Se) monolayers for efficient excitonic solar cells and photocatalytic water splitting(Royal Society of Chemistry, 2023-01-04T00:00:00) Singh, Jaspreet; Kumar, AshokHighly efficient, environmentally friendly and renewable sources of energy are of great need today to combat increasing energy demands and environmental pollution. In this work, we have investigated the novel 2D allotropes, i.e., ?-Te2X (X = S, Se), using first-principles calculations and study their potential applications in light harvesting devices. Both the monolayers possess high stability and semiconducting nature with an indirect band gap. The high carrier mobilities and excellent optical absorption of these monolayers make them potential candidates for solar conversion applications. We have proposed the type-II heterojunction solar cells and calculated their power conversion efficiencies (PCEs). The small conduction band offset and appropriate band gap of donor material in the case of ?-Te2S(S-Side)/?-Te2S(Te-Side) heterojunction results in a PCE of ?21%. In addition, the band alignments of these monolayers properly engulf the redox potentials of water. The overpotentials required to trigger hydrogen reduction (HER) and water oxidation (OER) half reactions reveal that HER and OER preferred acidic and neutral media, respectively. The calculated solar-to-hydrogen (STH) efficiencies of ?-Te2S (?-Te2Se) monolayers turn out to be ?13% (?12%), respectively, which implies their practical applications in water splitting. Thus, our work provides strong evidence regarding the potential applications of these materials in the field of light harvesting devices. � 2023 The Royal Society of Chemistry.Item Two-dimensional ?-PdX2 (X = S, Te) monolayers for efficient solar energy conversion applications(Royal Society of Chemistry, 2022-02-09T00:00:00) Jakhar, Mukesh; Kumar, AshokThe search for highly effective and environmentally safe photocatalysts for water splitting and photovoltaic solar cells is essential for renewable solar energy conversion and storage. Based on first-principle calculations, we show that novel 2D ?-PdX2 (X = S, Te) monolayer possesses excellent stability and great potential in solar energy conversion applications. Comprehensive studies show that the ?-PdS2 monolayer exhibits semiconductor characteristics with an indirect gap, suitable band alignment, efficient carrier separation, and high solar to hydrogen (STH) efficiency, supporting its good photoelectronic performance. The surface catalytic and adsorption/intercalation energy calculation reveals that the photogenerated electrons have adequate driving forces to render hydrogen reduction half-reactions to proceed spontaneously and the ability to cover and incorporate water molecules on the ?-PdS2 monolayer. Besides, the ?-PdTe2 monolayer is a promising donor material for excitonic solar cells with high photovoltaic performance. More importantly, due to suitable donor band gap and small conduction band offset in the proposed type-II heterostructure, the power conversion efficiencies (PCE) were calculated up to ?23% (?-PdTe2/WTe2), ?21% (?-PdTe2/MoTe2) and ?18% (?-PdTe2/?-PdS2), making it a promising candidate for solar energy conversion applications. � 2022 The Royal Society of ChemistryItem Tunable photocatalytic water splitting and solar-to-hydrogen efficiency in ?-PdSe2monolayer(Royal Society of Chemistry, 2021-08-18T00:00:00) Jakhar, Mukesh; Kumar, AshokDirect production of hydrogen from photocatalytic water splitting is a potential solution to overcome global energy crisis. Herein, based on first-principles calculations, we demonstrate that the two-dimensional ?-PdSe2 monolayer is a promising candidate for efficient photocatalytic water splitting in acidic and alkaline media as well as neutral medium with highly efficient solar-to-hydrogen efficiency. ?-PdSe2 monolayer shows low cleavage energy which endorses the possibility of its mechanical exfoliation from layered bulk ?-PdSe2. Remarkably, ?-PdSe2 monolayer is semiconducting with indirect band gap of 1.96 eV with perfect engulfing the redox potential of water in a wide range of pH of medium. ?-PdSe2 monolayer exhibits good light harvesting ability and adequate driving forces for water redox reaction in wide range of pH (0 to 12). Comprehensive investigation of pH dependent water splitting indicates that the ?-PdSe2 monolayer is a better candidate for efficient water splitting in alkaline media rather than acidic or neutral medium. In addition, high solar-to-hydrogen efficiency as high as ?17% is obtained that shows ?-PdSe2 monolayer a promising candidate for overall photocatalytic water-splitting. � The Royal Society of Chemistry.Item Twisted helical armchair graphene nanoribbons: mechanical and electronic properties(Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2021-05-08T00:00:00) Thakur, Rajesh; Ahluwalia, P.K.; Kumar, Ashok; Sharma, Munish; Sharma, RamanAbstract: The Hydrogen and Fluorine planar armchairs graphene nanoribbons (H & F AGNRs), subjected to twist deformation within fixed periodic boundary conditions. H-AGNRs is highly elastic in nature, though passivation with Fluorine does induce the plasticity when twisted beyond threshold torsional strain. This plasticity attributes to the wider bond length distribution suggests distortion of benzo-rings. The bandgap response to the effective strain of narrow GNRs N= 6 , 7 , and 8 get arranged as (i) monotonously increasing for q= 0 , 2 and (ii) decreasing for q= 1 ; here, q= mod(N, 3) in effective strain space (?2?2). The effective strain space is found to be more appropriate for gauging the response of torsional strain. This trend has also been observed for Fluorine passivated AGNRs; however, because of higher sensitive response to torsional strain, the bandgap of N= 7 F-AGNRs drops from Eg? 0.95 eV to Eg? 0.05 eV at extreme torsional strain forming Dirac cone at � K allows dissipationless transport to charge carriers of high kinetic energy at low bias. Graphic abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.] � 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to EDP Sciences, SIF and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.Item Electronic properties and STM images of vacancy clusters and chains in functionalized silicene and germanene(Elsevier B.V., 2017) Jamdagni, Pooja; Kumar, Ashok; Sharma, Munish; Thakur, Anil; Ahluwalia, P. K.Electronic properties and STM topographical images of X (=F, H, O) functionalized silicene and germanene have been investigated by introducing various kind of vacancy clusters and chain patterns in monolayers within density functional theory (DFT) framework. The relative ease of formation of vacancy clusters and chain patterns is found to be energetically most favorable in hydrogenated silicene and germanene. F- and H-functionalized silicene and germanene are direct bandgap semiconducting with bandgap ranging between 0.1?1.9?eV, while O-functionalized monolayers are metallic in nature. By introducing various vacancy clusters and chain patterns in both silicene and germanene, the electronic and magnetic properties get modified in significant manner e.g. F- and H-functionalized silicene and germanene with hexagonal and rectangle vacancy clusters are non-magnetic semiconductors with modified bandgap values while pentagonal and triangle vacancy clusters induce metallicity and magnetic character in monolayers; hexagonal vacancy chain patterns induce direct-to-indirect gap transition while zigzag vacancy chain patterns retain direct bandgap nature of monolayers. Calculated STM topographical images show distinctly different characteristics for various type of vacancy clusters and chain patterns which may be used as electronic fingerprints to identify various vacancy patterns in silicene and germanene created during the process of functionalization. ? 2016 Elsevier B.V.Item Ultra-narrow blue phosphorene nanoribbons for tunable optoelectronics(Royal Society of Chemistry, 2017) Swaroop, Ram; Ahluwalia, P. K.; Tankeshwar, K.; Kumar, AshokWe report optoelectronic properties of ultra-narrow blue phosphorene nanoribbons (BPNRs) within the state-of-the-art density functional theory framework. The positive but small value of formation energy (?0.1 eV per atom) indicates the relative ease of the formation of BPNRs from their two-dimensional (2D) counterpart. The oscillatory behaviour of the electronic band gap of bare BPNRs with increasing width is attributed to the reconstruction of edge atoms. The static dielectric constant of BPNRs depends on the width and applied strain which in turn shows consistency with the Penn's model expression for semiconductors. Bare BPNRs exhibit both ? and ? + ? plasmonic structures while passivated ones possess only a ? + ? plasmonic structure that get blue-shifted (as large as ?3 eV) on increasing the width of the BPNRs which makes electron energy loss spectroscopy useful for identifying the width of BPNRs in real experimental situations. The mechanical strain induces a small red shift in, which is attributed to the modification in electronic band dispersion due to a different superposition of atomic orbitals on the application of applied strain. These tunable electronic and dielectric properties of BPNRs mean they may find applications in optoelectronic devices based on blue phosphorene. ? The Royal Society of Chemistry.