Electronic Properties of Black Phosphorus and Phosphorene Systems

Black phosphorus (BP) and its exfoliated monolayer derivative phosphorene constitute a class of two-dimensional semiconductors distinguished by a thickness-tunable direct bandgap, high carrier mobility and pronounced in-plane anisotropy. In few-layer form, quantum confinement and strong interlayer coupling yield subband ladders whose energies and effective masses differ markedly along the armchair and zigzag directions. Electric fields and mechanical strain offer dynamic control of the bandgap, enabling insulator-to-metal or topological transitions and the emergence of Dirac-like dispersion in ultra-thin films. Moiré superlattices in twisted phosphorene heterostructures unlock further opportunities to engineer optical resonances and electronic minibands, while magnetic fields give rise to anisotropic Landau quantisation and non-linear transport phenomena. Together, these properties make BP and phosphorene promising platforms for tunable photonic devices, high-performance field-effect transistors, spintronic and optoelectronic applications, as well as fundamental studies of anisotropic two-dimensional quantum systems.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have revealed how rotation between layers in phosphorene bilayers produces highly anisotropic moiré superlattices with optical resonances that cannot be explained by simple layer-sum behaviour. Twist angles up to 20° lead to new interlayer coupling patterns that reshape the direct bandgap at the Γ-point and amplify rectangular-lattice effects, giving rise to strong absorption peaks whose energy and intensity are twist-angle dependent. Complementary work has examined the competition between in-plane strain and perpendicular electric fields in monolayer phosphorene, demonstrating that tensile or compressive strains can tune the bandgap in opposite directions and shift electron energy-loss peaks across infrared to visible frequencies. This interplay allows precise engineering of interband transitions and red or blue shifts in optical spectra under combined stimuli. Time-dependent transmission through electrostatic barriers has further shown that low-frequency oscillating potentials suppress anisotropic resonant tunnelling and introduce Fano-line shapes along the armchair direction, suggesting routes to phosphorene-based switching and detection devices.

Electronic Properties of Black Phosphorus and Phosphorene Systems publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in electronic properties of black phosphorus and phosphorene systems across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Bandgap: Energy difference between valence-band maximum and conduction-band minimum governing optical absorption and electronic switching.

Dirac cone: Linear dispersion relation near a band crossing point resembling massless fermions, enabling high-mobility transport.

Anisotropy: Directional dependence of electronic properties such as effective mass or conductivity in the lattice plane.

Moiré superlattice: Periodic modulation arising when two lattices are overlaid with a twist or lattice mismatch, producing new electronic minibands.

Berry curvature dipole: Measure of asymmetric Berry curvature distribution in momentum space, responsible for non-linear Hall currents under zero magnetic field.

References

1. Anisotropic moiré optical transitions in twisted monolayer/bilayer phosphorene heterostructures. Nature Communications (2021).
2. Systematic competition between strain and electric field stimuli in tuning EELS of phosphorene. Scientific Reports (2021).
3. Quenching effect of oscillating potential on anisotropic resonant transmission through a phosphorene electrostatic barrier. Scientific Reports (2021).
4. Electronic Structure of Few-Layer Black Phosphorus from μ‑ARPES. Nano Letters (2023).
5. Berry curvature dipole and its strain engineering in layered phosphorene. Materials Today Electronics (2023).
6. Non-equilibrium band broadening, gap renormalization and band inversion in black phosphorus. 2D Materials (2021).