Two-dimensional semiconducting gold

We show that two-dimensional (2D) honeycomb gold (HG) could be thermodynamic and lattice dynamic stable owing in part to the relativistic effect and electronic configuration. HG exhibits a covalent characteristic in its bonding and is a semiconductor with an energy gap of 0.1 eV at the Brillouin zone K point caused by strong spin-orbit coupling. The gap can be further widened to about 0.3 eV if HG is tailored into nanoribbons with the armchair type of edges. In contrast, 2D close-packed gold (CPG) is metallic with a small effective mass. Both HG and CPG are more transparent to visible light than graphene. They are expected to outperform graphene as a semiconducting material in an electronic logic device and as a transparent conducting material in fabricating a display device, respectively.