Phonon-limited transport of two-dimensional semiconductors: Quadrupole scattering and free carrier screening
Chenmu Zhang, Yuanyue Liu
Abstract
Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors have demonstrated great potential for next-generation electronics and optoelectronics. An important property for these applications is the phonon-limited charge carrier mobility. The common approach to calculate the mobility from first principles relies on the interpolation of the electron-phonon coupling (EPC) matrix. However, it neglects the scattering by the quadrupoles generated by phonons, limiting its accuracy. Here we present a first-principles method to incorporate the quadrupole scattering, which results in a much better interpolation quality and thus a more accurate mobility as exemplified by monolayer $\mathrm{Mo}{\mathrm{S}}_{2}$ and InSe. This method also allows for a natural incorporation of the effects of the free carriers, enabling us to efficiently compute the screened EPC and thus the mobility for electrostatically doped semiconductors. Particularly, we find that the electron mobility of InSe is more sensitive to the carrier concentration than that of $\mathrm{Mo}{\mathrm{S}}_{2}$ due to the stronger long-range scattering in intrinsic InSe. With increasing electron concentration, the InSe mobility can reach $\ensuremath{\sim}4$ times the intrinsic value, then decrease owing to the involvement of heavier electronic states. Our work provides accurate and efficient methods to calculate the phonon-limited mobility in the intrinsic and electrostatically doped 2D materials, and improves the fundamental understanding of their transport mechanism.