Synthesis, structure, and properties of covalent transition metal tetrel pnictides

Abstract

<p>Tetrel pnictides are a severely understudied class of materials that can be utilized in a wide range of possible applications (e.g., nonlinear optics, energy storage, thermoelectrics, and electronics). Symmetry-driven physical phenomena, such as second harmonic generation or topologically non-trivial properties, are prevalent among noncentrosymmetric (NCS) and nonsymmorphic (NS) crystal structures and are sought after in the condensed matter physics community. While the binary tetrel mono- and dipnictides (TtPn and TtPn2) have 2D van der Waals layered crystal structures, ternary tetrel pnictides that incorporate a transition metal of similar electronegativity exhibit many 3D NCS and NS crystal structures. A deeper understanding of the structure-property relationships of these known MTtPn phases will lead to both discovery of novel phases, as well as knowledge of how to tune their properties for the development of new technologies.</p>