Influence of compression strains on photon absorption of silicene and germanene

Abstract

In this paper, optical properties of silicene and germanene under compressive homogeneous strain are investigated within the density function theory. Results show that the optical-field response are strongly depend on the amount of applied strain. As the strain increases, the amount of optical absorption increases. In fact, by applying the compressive strain in the silicene and germanene, the band gap at the Dirac points decreases where ultimately reaches zero. Depending on the amount of strain, absorption peak shows red and blue shifts by increasing the strain. This can be realized by considering the change of the band gap energy and transition rates by the strain. In both of these graphene-like structures, the light absorption along zigzag direction is greater than that of the armchair direction.