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Germanium arsenide (GeAs) is a layered semiconductor with remarkably anisotropic thermoelectric and optical properties and a promising candidate for multifunctional devices based on in-plane polarization dependent response. Understanding the underlying mechanism of such devices requires knowledge of GeAs electronic band structure and of the hot carrier dynamics in its conduction band, whose details are still unclear. In this work, we investigate the properties of occupied and photoexcited states of GeAs, by combining scanning tunneling spectroscopy, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), and time-resolved ARPES. We find that GeAs is an ∼0.8 eV indirect gap semiconductor, for which the conduction band minimum (CBM) is located at the Γ ¯ point while the valence band maximum is out of Γ ¯ . A Stark broadening of the valence band is observed immediately after photoexcitation, which can be attributed to the effects of the electrical field at the surface induced by inhomogeneous screening. Moreover, the hot electron relaxation time of 1.56 ps is down to the CBM, which is dominated by electron–phonon coupling. Besides their relevance for our understanding of GeAs, these findings present general interest for the design of high performance thermoelectric and optoelectronic devices based on 2D semiconductors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atomically thin bismuth films (2D Bi) are becoming a promising research area due to their unique properties and their wide variety of applications in spintronics, electronic and optoelectronic devices. We report on the structural properties of Bi on Au(110), explored by low-energy electron diffraction (LEED), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. At a Bi coverage lower than one monolayer (1 ML) various reconstructions are observed, we focus on Bi/Au(110)-c(2 × 2) reconstruction (at 0.5 ML) and Bi/Au(110)-(3 × 3) structure (at 0.66 ML). We propose models for both structures based on STM measurements and further confirm by DFT calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phosphorene, a semiconducting two-dimensional material, has recently attracted huge interest due to its potential applications in opto-electronics. The first attempts to synthesize phosphorene were based mainly on mechanical and chemical exfoliations. A few years later, different groups reported the synthesis of phosphorene using the molecular beam epitaxy process, which opened the way for research on physical properties. In this article, we report phosphorus growth on an Au(110) substrate via molecular beam epitaxy. The atomically resolved scanning tunneling microscopy images exhibit a self-assembled phosphorus-dimer structure, which is converted into phosphorus chains when increasing the phosphorus coverage. The chemical composition of the obtained structures is determined via Auger electron and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies. Density functional theory calculations support the experimental findings.