Silicene for flexible electronics

Abstract

The outstanding properties of graphene have laid the foundation for exploring graphene-like twodimensional systems, commonly referred to as 2D-Xenes. Amongst them, silicene is a front-runner owing to its compatibility with current silicon fabrication technologies. Recent works on silicene have unveiled its useful electronic and mechanical properties. The rapid miniaturization of silicon devices and the useful electro-mechanical properties of silicene necessitates the exploration for potential applications of silicene flexible electronics in the nano electro-mechanical systems. Using a theoretical model derived from the integration of ab-initio density-functional theory and quantum transport theory, we investigate the piezoresistance effect of silicene in the nanoscale regime. Like graphene, we obtain a small value of piezoresistance gauge factor of silicene, which is sinusoidally dependent on the transport angle. The small gauge factor of silicene is attributed to its robust Dirac cone and strain-independent valley degeneracy. Based on the obtained results, we propose to use silicene as an interconnect in flexible electronic devices and a reference piezoresistor in strain sensors. This work will hence pave the way for exploring flexible electronics applications in other 2D-Xene materials.