The breaking of the vertical symmetry in Janus monochalcogenides gave rise to many properties that were not present in the original monochalcogenide monolayers. However, recent papers have often focused only on Janus monochalcogenides containing S, Se, and Te elements despite that O is also one of the group VI chalcogen elements. In this paper, we systematically investigate the electronic, transport, optical, and thermoelectric properties of Janus monolayers () using first-principles calculations. Based on phonon spectrum analysis and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations at room temperature, monolayers were reported to be stable. Our calculations reveal that, while is an indirect semiconductor, exhibits a direct semiconducting characteristic, and biaxial strain can lead to the semiconductor-metal phase transition in . Monolayer is metal at equilibrium, and its metallic characteristics are prevented under biaxial strains. Calculations for transport properties show that the carrier mobilities of and monolayers are highly anisotropic, and electron mobility of exceeds . In this paper, the optical and thermoelectric properties of and monolayers are also investigated and discussed in detail. Finally, the electronic properties of all four possible stacking configurations of the Janus bilayers are briefly calculated. Our findings not only contribute to a more general view of the physical properties of the Janus group III monochalcogenides but also recommend them as potential nanomaterials for applications in optoelectronic and thermal devices.
This work aims to test the effectiveness of newly developed DFT-1/2 functional in calculating the electronic and optical properties of inorganic lead halide perovskites CsPbBr3. Herein, from DFT-1/2 we have obtained the direct band gap of 2.36 eV and 3.82 eV for orthorhombic bulk and 001-surface, respectively. The calculated energy band gap is in qualitative agreement with the experimental findings. The bandgap of ultra-thin film of CsPbBr3 is found to be 3.82 eV, which is more than the expected range 1.23-3.10 eV. However, we have found that the bandgap can be reduced by increasing the surface thickness. Thus, the system under investigation looks promising for optoelectronic and photocatalysis applications, due to the bandgap matching and high optical absorption in UV–Vis (Ultra violet and visible spectrum) range of electro-magnetic(em) radiation.