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Cross section of a sheet of antimonen with few layers, where the external gloss represents the conductivity mainly by its surface / UAM
Madrid, 4th November 2021. Antimonen — an atomic-thick sheet of antimony atoms — is one of the latest additions to the family of two-dimensional materials made up of a single element. Due to its particular characteristics, added to its great stability under environmental conditions, antimonen attracted the interest of the scientific community, even though experimental results of its electrical properties had not yet been presented.
Now, an international team, led by researchers from the UAM, has published a combination of experimental and theoretical results that evidence the exotic electrical properties of antimonen.
In particular, the researchers characterized the electronic properties of low-layered antimonen foils. Thus, they observed that these properties are practically independent of the thickness of the sheets, and that the electrical transport takes place mainly through the surface of the material.
Researchers also determined a mobility for antimonen that, in combination with its stability and simple few-layer structure, makes it a promising candidate for numerous nanoelectronic and optoelectronic applications.
The electronic properties were analysed using the low-energy and photo-emission electron microscopy, in combination with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, at the CIRCE beamline of the ALBA Synchrotron.
These results were achieved in collaboration with the Madrid Institute of Materials Science (CSIC), the ALBA Synchrotron in Barcelona, and the universities of Aarhus (Denmark), Guilan (Iran), Federal de Rio de Janeiro and Federal del Espíritu Santo (Brazil).
