Selenene and Tellurene

Given their unique helical-chain crystal structure, tellurium (Te) and selenium (Se) can present in both two-dimensional (2D) form such as layered-thin films and one-dimensional (1D) configuration such as nanowires. These two elemental materials have attracted more and more attention due to their excellent physical properties, including the tunable bandgaps, high carrier mobilities, good thermoelectric properties, ambient stability, and strong and angle-dependent photoresponse. Especially, Te has started to show potential to be a new-generation electronic material for future device applications beyond Moore’s law by overcoming the fundamental challenges that graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides, and black phosphorus encountered. In the past few years, reliable growth methods have been reported, including not only their 2D configuration (termed tellurene and selenene) down to monolayer but also their 1D form down to single atomic chain limit. These synthesis routes provide well-grounded access to the materials, benefiting more property investigation and application exploration.