Stacking nature and band gap opening of graphene: Perspective for optoelectronic applications

Using first principles density functional theory calculations, we have performed geometrical and electronic structure calculations of two-dimensional graphene(G) sheet on the hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) with different stacking orders. We found that AB stacking appears as the ground state while AA-stacking is a local minima. Band gap opening in the hybrid G/h-BN is sensitive to the interlayer distance and stacking arrangement. Charge redistribution in the graphene sheet determined the band gap opening where the onsite energy difference between carbon lattice atoms of G-sheet takes place. Similar behavior can be observed for the proposed h-BN/G/h-BN tri-layer system. Stacking resolved calculations of the absorptive part of complex dielectric function and optical conductivity revealed the importance of the proposed hybrid systems in the optoelectronics.