A novel van der Waals semiconductor: InTeI crystal

van der Waals materials have attracted much scientific and technological interest recently. In this study, We synthetized a novel van der Waals brown semitransparent semiconductor: InTeI single crystal, and characterized its structure and optical properties carefully. Single crystal diffraction results show a layered structure with the P21/c space group and 4.09 A interlayer distance at room temperature. UV–visible absorption and photoluminescence spectra reveal that the band gap of InTeI is ~2.219 eV. The photocurrents under an illumination wavelength of 500 nm and non-illuminated conditions indicate its potential applicability in the photovoltaic field. Our work may be benefit for the understanding of its practical applications in field emission devices and photodectors.