Thinning Effect of Few-Layer Black Phosphorus Exposed in Dry Oxidation

Few-layer black phosphorus (BP) exhibits great potential for next-generation electronics because of the tunable band gap and high carrier mobility. The layer modulation of BP is essential in the applications of electronic device ascribed to its thickness-dependent electronic properties. However, precisely controlling its thickness still exists challenge for the preferable performance. Here, we find that BP will be thinned controllably when exposed to dry oxygen (40% humidity, low oxygen concentration) in dark environment, which is different from that exposed to humid oxygen (100% humidity, low oxygen concentration) without light illumination. The thinning BP not only exhibits better stability, but its electrical properties can be apparently improved. The ION/IOFF ratio increased from 103 to 106, resulting in the variation of band gap from 0.3 to 2 eV, and the hole mobility improved from 235 cm2V-1s-1 to 851 cm2V-1s-1, ascribed to the layer by layer thinning and p-type doping effects induced by the formed PxOy. Our finding shows significant potential of BP in future nanoelectronic and optoelectronic applications.

Keywords: BP, dry oxidization, layer-by-layer thinning, p-type doping.

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Zheng, Xiaoming and Zheng, Xiaofang and Chen, Siyang and Guo, Xiao and Liu, Bowen and Wang, Chuanxin and Han, Yujie and Guo, Yujing and Nie, Guozheng and Huang, Han and Wei, Yuehua and Yang, Hang, Thinning Effect of Few-Layer Black Phosphorus Exposed in Dry Oxidation. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4860486 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4860486