2D semiconducting metal phosphorus trichalcogenides, particularly the bulk crystals of MPS3 (M = Fe, Mn, Ni, Cd and Zn) sulfides and MPSe3 (M = Fe and Mn) selenides, have been synthesized, crystallized and exfoliated into monolayers. The Raman spectra of monolayer FePS3 and 3-layer FePSe3 show the strong intralayer vibrations and structural stability of the atomically thin layers under ambient condition. The band gaps can be adjusted by element choices in the range of 1.3-3.5 eV. The wide-range band gaps suggest their optoelectronic applications in a broad wavelength range. The calculated cleavage energies of MPS3 are smaller than that of graphite. Therefore, the monolayers used for building of heterostructures by van der Waals stacking could be considered as the candidates for artificial 2D materials with unusual ferroelectric and magnetic properties.

Q. (2016). Raman spectroscopy of atomically thin two-dimensional magnetic iron phosphorus trisulfide (FePS3) crystals. 2D Materials, 3(3), 031009-.

Layered 2D halide perovskites with their alternating organic and inorganic atomic layers that form a self‐assembled quantum well system are analogues of the purely inorganic 2D transition metal dichalcogenides. Within their periodic structures lie a hotbed of photophysical phenomena such as dielectric confinement effect, optical Stark effect, strong exciton–photon coupling, etc. Detailed understanding into the strong light–matter interactions in these hybrid organic–inorganic semiconductor systems remains modest. Herein, the intricate coherent interplay of exciton, spin, and phonon dynamics in (C6H5C2H4NH3)2PbI4 thin films using transient optical spectroscopy is explicated. New insights into the hotly debated origins of transient spectral features, relaxation pathways, ultrafast spin relaxation via exchange interaction, and strong coherent exciton–phonon coupling are revealed from the detailed phenomenological modeling. Importantly, this work unravels the complex interplay of spin–quasiparticle interactions in these layered 2D halide perovskites with large spin–orbit coupling.

Using density-functional perturbation theory and the Grüneisen formalism, we directly calculate the linear thermal expansion coefficients (TECs) of a hexagonal bulk system MoS2 in the crystallographic a and c directions. The TEC calculation depends critically on the evaluation of a temperature-dependent quantity Ii(T ), which is the integral of the product of heat capacity and Γi(ν), of frequency ν and strain type i, where Γi(ν) is the phonon density of states weighted by the Grüneisen parameters. We show that to determine the linear TECs we may use minimally two uniaxial strains in the z direction, and either the x or y direction. However, a uniaxial strain in either the x or y direction drastically reduces the symmetry of the crystal from a hexagonal one to a base-centered orthorhombic one. We propose to use an efficient and accurate symmetry-preserving biaxial strain in the xy plane to derive the same result for Γ(ν). We highlight that the Grüneisen parameter associated with a biaxial strain may not be the same as the average of Grüneisen parameters associated with two separate uniaxial strains in the x and y directions due to possible preservation of degeneracies of the phonon modes under a biaxial deformation. Large anisotropy of TECs is observed where the linear TEC in the c direction is about 1.8 times larger than that in the a or b direction at high temperatures. Our theoretical TEC results are compared with experiment. The symmetry-preserving approach adopted here may be applied to a broad class of two lattice-parameter systems such as hexagonal, trigonal, and tetragonal systems, which allows many complicated systems to be treated on a first-principles level.

Magnetic doping and proximity coupling can open a band gap in a topological insulator (TI) and give rise to dissipationless quantum conduction phenomena. Here, by combining these two approaches, we demonstrate a novel TI superlattice structure that is alternately doped with transition and rare earth elements. An unexpected exchange bias effect is unambiguously confirmed in the superlattice with a large exchange bias field using magneto-transport and magneto-optical techniques. Further, the Curie temperature of the Cr-doped layers in the superlattice is found to increase by 60 K compared to a Cr-doped single-layer film. This result is supported by density-functional-theory calculations, which indicate the presence of antiferromagnetic ordering in Dy:Bi 2 Te 3 induced by proximity coupling to Cr:Sb 2 Te 3 at the interface. This work provides a new pathway to realizing the quantum anomalous Hall effect at elevated temperatures and axion insulator state at zero magnetic field by interface engineering in TI heterostructures.