First Principle Investigations of Structural, Electronic and Thermal Properties of Pristine, Metal and Non-Metal Doped Silicene for Thermoelectric Applications
Silicene, a two-dimensional hexagonal silicon layer, exhibits exceptional electronic and
thermoelectric properties. However, its application in semiconductors is hindered by its zeroband gap, which could be overcome by modifying its electronic properties through doping. In
this paper, Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations were performed to investigate the
band gap opening in silicene by studying the effect of magnesium and sulphur doping on its
electronic, structural and thermal properties. Pristine silicene has a lattice constant of 3.86 Å
and a zero-band gap. Upon doping with 12.5% S and Mg atoms, the lattice constant modifies
to 3.45 Å and 3.93 Å, respectively, resulting in a direct band gap opening. For 25% Mg and S
doping, the result shows that Mg and S effectively alter the band structure and the band gap of
silicene monolayer at various configurations. The maximum band gap was 0.98 eV and 1.22
eV for Mg and S doping into the meta position to the reference point R, respectively. The power
factor significantly increases with doping, reaching 1.20 x 1011 WK-2m-1 and 1.40 x 1011 WK-
2
m-1 for 12.5% Mg and S doping compared to 7.4 x 1010 WK-2m-1 for pristine silicene. This
substantial enhancement indicates improved thermoelectric performance, making silicene a
promising candidate for thermoelectric applications. Results demonstrate that tuning the band
gap through doping can simultaneously enhance the power factor, highlighting the potential of
Mg/S-doped silicene for efficient energy harvesting and conversion.