Silicene Straintronics

The tremendous success of graphene has laid the foundation for exploring various properties of graphene-like 2-D materials, commonly referred to as Xenes.  Silicene (single-layer silicon) is a front runner amongst them due to its compatibility with the current silicon fabrication technology. Recent works on silicene have unveiled its exceptional electronic and mechanical properties. The rapid miniaturization of silicon devices, along with the useful electro-mechanical properties of silicene, have paved the way for exploration of straintronics in silicene [1] in nano electro-mechanical systems (NEMS). In this work, we develop a model to investigate straintronics in nanoscale silicene using density functional theory and quantum transport theory.  We demonstrate that the directional piezoresistance of silicene is very small and is sinusoidally dependent on transport angle like graphene [2]. Based on the obtained results, we propose application of silicene as a strain sensor and as an interconnect in flexible electronics. The model developed herein can be used for similar applications in other Xenes.

References:            

[1] Zhao, H.  Strain and chirality effects on the mechanical and electronic properties of silicene and silicane under uniaxial tension. Physics Letters A, 376(46), 3546-3550, (2012).

[2] Sinha, A., Sharma, A., Priyadarshi, P., Tulapurkar, A., & Muralidharan, B., Graphene as a nanoelectromechanical reference piezoresistor. Physical Review Research, 2(4), 043041, (2020).