Phosphorene as a new 2D material for device applications

Summary form only given. Phosphorus is one of the most abundant elements preserved in earth, constructing with a fraction of 0.1% of the earth crust. In general, phosphorus has several allotropes including white, red, and black phosphorus. Black phosphorus, though rarely mentioned, is a layered semiconductor as shown in Figure 1 and have great potentials in optical and electronic applications. Remarkably, this layered material can be reduced to one single atomic layer as shown in Figure 2 in the vertical direction owing to the van der Waals structure, dubbed phosphorene, where the physical properties can be tremendously different from its bulk counterpart and needed to be further explored. In this talk, we trace back to the 100 years research history on black phosphorus from the synthesis to material properties, and extend the topic from black phosphorus to phosphorene. The physical and transport properties are highlighted, aiming at further applications in electronic and optoelectronics devices.