Ab initio study of the effect of 2D layer rippling on the electronic properties of 2D/H-terminated diamond (100) heterostructures

Abstract

We report an ab initio study of the effect of rippling on the structural and electronic properties of the hexagonal Boron Nitride (hBN) and graphene two-dimensional (2D) layers and heterostructures created by placing these layers on the Hydrogen-terminated (H-) diamond (100) surface. Surprisingly, in graphene, rippling does not open a band gap at the Dirac point but does cause the Dirac cone to be shifted and distorted. For the 2D/H-diamond (100) heterostructures, a combined sampling and a clustering approach were used to find the most favorable alignment of the 2D layers. Heterostructures with rippled layers were found to be the most stable. A larger charge transfer was observed in the heterostructures with rippled hBN (graphene) than their planner counterparts. Band offset analysis indicates a Type-II band alignment for both the wavy and planar heterostructures, with the corrugated structure having stronger hole confinement due to the larger valence band offset between the hBN layer and the H-diamond (100) surface. Graphic abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]