Monolayer honeycomb structures of group-IV elements and III-V binary compounds: First-principles calculations

Using first-principles plane-wave calculations, we investigate two-dimensional (2D) honeycomb structure of group-IV elements and their binary compounds as well as the compounds of group III-V elements. Based on structure optimization and phonon-mode calculations, we determine that 22 different honeycomb materials are stable and correspond to local minima on the Born-Oppenheimer surface. We also find that all the binary compounds containing one of the first row elements, B, C, or N have planar stable structures. On the other hand, in the honeycomb structures of Si, Ge, and other binary compounds the alternating atoms of hexagons are buckled since the stability is maintained by puckering. For those honeycomb…