Valence-band offsets and Schottky barrier heights of layered semiconductors explained by interface-induced gap states

Many metal chalcogenides are layered semiconductors. They consist of chalcogen–metal–chalcogen layers that are themselves bound by van der Waals forces. Hence, heterostructures involving layered compounds are abrupt and strain-free. Experimental valence-band offsets of heterostructures between GaSe, InSe, SnS2, SnSe2, MoS2, MoTe2, WSe2, and CuInSe2 and between some of these compounds and ZnSe, CdS, and CdTe as well as barrier heights of Au contacts on GaSe, InSe, MoS2, MoTe2, WSe2, ZnSe, CdS, and CdTe are analyzed. The valence-band discontinuities of the heterostructures and the barrier heights of the Schottky contact compounds are consistently described by the continuum of interface-induced gap states as the primary mechanism that governs the band lineup at semiconductor interfaces.