Observation of large in-plane anisotropic transport in van derWaals semiconductor Nb<sub>2</sub>SiTe<sub>4</sub> *
Kaiyao Zhou, Jun Deng, Long Chen, Wei Xia, Yanfeng Guo, Zhenping Chen, Jiangang Guo, Liwei Guo
Abstract
Two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals material is a focus of research for its widespread application in optoelectronics, memories, and spintronics. The ternary compound Nb 2 SiTe 4 is a van der Waals semiconductor with excellent air stability and small cleavage energy, which is suitable for preparing a few layers counterpart to explore novel properties. Here, properties of bulk Nb 2 SiTe 4 with large in-plane electrical anisotropy are demonstrated. It is found that hole carriers dominate at a temperature above 45 K with a carrier active energy of 31.3 meV. The carrier mobility measured at 100 K is about 213 cm 2 ⋅V −1 ⋅s −1 in bulk Nb 2 SiTe 4 , higher than the reported results. In a thin flake Nb 2 SiTe 4 , the resistivity ratio between the crystalline axes of a and b is reaching about 47.3 at 2.5 K, indicating that there exists a large anisotropic transport behavior in their basal plane. These novel transport properties provide accurate information for modulating or utilizing Nb 2 SiTe 4 for electronic device applications.