Multifunctional nanomaterial proposed by Rice could enhance solar energy, quantum computing

An atypical two-dimensional sandwich has the tasty part on the outside for scientists and engineers developing multifunctional nanodevices.

An atom-thin layer of semiconductor antimony paired with ferroelectric indium selenide would display unique properties depending on the side and polarization by an external electric field.

The field could be used to stabilize indium selenide’s polarization, a long-sought property that tends to be wrecked by internal fields in materials like perovskites but would be highly useful for solar energy applications.

Calculations by Rice materials theorist Boris Yakobson, lead author and researcher Jun-Jie Zhang and graduate student Dongyang Zhu shows switching the material’s polarization with an external electric field makes it either a simple insulator with a band gap suitable for visible light absorption or a topological insulator, a material that only conducts electrons along its surface.

Turning the field inward would make the material good for solar panels. Turning it outward could make it useful as a spintronic device for quantum computing.

The lab’s study appears in the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters.

– See more at Rice News