Tin(II) Selenide (SnSe) Crystal

Tin(II) selenide (SnSe) is a narrow band gap semiconductor comprised of environmentally friendly and earth abundant elements.

SnSe has recently proven to be an extraordinarily promising thermoelectric material with intrinsically ultra-low lattice thermal conductivity and a record figure of merit up to 2.6 at a higher temperature (813 K). This enables direct and reversible conversion between thermal and electrical energy, and provides a viable route for power generation from waste heat.

With an indirect bandgap of 1.30 eV and direct bandgap of 1.21 eV,  SnSe has great potential to be utilised as an efficient material for solar energy conversion.

SnSe belongs to the class of layered semiconductors. It is made up of tightly bound layers formed by double planes each of which consists of zigzag chains of tin and selenium atoms. At room temperature, SnSe adopts orthorhombic crystal structure which can be compared to that of black phosphorus.

Structure of Tin(II) Selenide Crystal

Platinum FET Test Chips for 2D Materials

• Affordable
• World-Wide Shipping
• Dual Channel Electrodes

Buy Online £180.00

Order Now

Applications of Tin(II) Selenide Crystal

Exfoliated few-layer tin(II) selenide (SnSe) has been used in the field of photovoltaics and infrared optoelectronic devices, radiation detectors, holographic recording systems, electrical switching, and polarity-dependent memory switching devices. SnSe also has great potential for use in memory switching devices, efficient solar materials, and holographic recording systems.

Synthesis

Tin(II) selenide (SnS) is manufactured using chemical vapour transport (CVT) crystallisation, with crystals having a high purity (in excess of 99.999%).

Usage

Tin(II) selenide single crystals can be used to prepare monolayer and few-layer Sn, via mechanical or liquid exfoliation.

Viscoelastic transfer of 2D material using PDMS

Literature and Reviews

• Liquid Exfoliation Few-Layer SnSe Nanosheets with Tunable Band Gap, Y. Huang et al., J. Phys. Chem. C, 121 (32), 17530–17537 (2017); DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b06096.
• Ultralow thermal conductivity and high thermoelectric figure of merit in SnSe crystals, L. Zhao et al., Nature, 508, 373-377 (2014); doi: 10.1038/nature13184.
• Quasiparticle band structures and thermoelectric transport properties of p-type SnSe, G. Shi et al., J. Appl. Phys., 117, 065103 (2015); doi: 10.1063/1.4907805.
• Anisotropic Spin Transport and Strong Visible-Light Absorbance in Few- Layer SnSe and GeSe, G. Shi et al., Nano Lett., 15, 6926−6931 (2015); DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b02861.
• Nanostructured SnSe: Synthesis, doping, and thermoelectric properties, S. Liu et al., J. Appl. Phys., 123, 115109 (2018); doi: 10.1063/1.5018860.