title: Band gap engineering of bulk and nanosheet SnO: an insight into the interlayer Sn-Sn lone pair interactions.
abstract: The effects of interlayer lone-pair interactions on the electronic structure of SnO are explored using density-functional theory. Our comprehensive study reveals that the band gap of SnO opens with the increase in the interlayer Sn-Sn distance. The effect is rationalized by the character of band edges which consist of bonding and anti-bonding states from interlayer lone pair interactions. The band edges for several nanosheets and strained double-layer SnO are estimated. We conclude that the double-layer SnO is a promising material for visible-light driven photocatalysts for hydrogen evolution.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Physics, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Materials Physics and Preparing Technology, Faculty of Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Naoto
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Umezawa