Geometrical structures, and electronic and transport properties of a novel two-dimensional β-GaS transparent conductor

Two-dimensional (2D) materials are highly promising for flexible electronics, and graphene is the only well-studied transparent conductor. Herein, density functional theory has been used to explore a new transparent conducting material via adsorption of H on a 2D β-GaS sheet. This adsorption results in geometrical changes to the local structures around the H. The calculated electronic structures reveal metallic characteristics of the 2D β-GaS material upon H adsorption and a large optical band gap of 2.72 eV with a significant Burstein-Moss shift of 0.67 eV. The simulated electrical resistivity is as low as 10–4 O·cm, comparable to the benchmark for ITO thin films.