Strain tunable Schottky barriers and tunneling characteristics of borophene/MX2 van der Waals heterostructures

Abstract

Based on first-principle calculations, we report the strain induced changes in electronic properties and their influence on current-voltage (I?V) characteristics of the borophene (?12)/MX2 (M = Mo, W and X = S, Se) vdW heterostructures. The results reveal that the intrinsic electronic nature of borophene and MX2 is retained because of weak van der Waals interactions. However, p-type Schottky contacts are formed at the interface of the heterostructures. Application of the in-plane tensile and compression strains is effective in tuning the Schottky contacts and controlling the SBHs. Also, at the vertical pressure values of 5.46 and 5.25 GPa for ?12/MoS2 and ?12/WS2 respectively, Schottky contact changes from p-type to n-type. The I?V characteristics exhibit an ohmic behavior at low bias ±0.1 v and noticeable NDR on changing positive (negative) biases. Such strain tunable Schottky barriers may be influential in ?12/MX2 based high-performance nano- and optoelectronic devices. - 2020 Elsevier B.V.