Manipulating thermal transport in monolayer via surface charge transfer doping with molecules
Phys. Rev. B 114, 185416 – Published 11 September, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/91m7-7kc6
Abstract
Surface charge transfer doping (SCTD) preserves the pristine crystal structure and allows precise tuning of the doping level, making it a promising strategy for modulating the properties of low-dimensional materials. In this work, we investigate the effect of surface molecular doping on the thermal transport properties of monolayer . Density functional theory calculations reveal that surface-adsorbed enables the injection of holes () into monolayer , providing -type doping. The charge transfer also leads to strong adsorption of the molecule on the , with adsorption energies below –1.85 eV. Based on a developed neuroevolution potential and homogeneous nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations, we demonstrate that adsorption significantly reduces the lattice thermal conductivity (LTC) of monolayer . At 300 K, the LTC decreases from in pristine to at a doping level of . The LTC is further reduced to when the concentration of increases to 7.29×. The introduction of surface dopants generates resonant flat bands at various frequencies in the phonon dispersion curves. These resonant modes interact with propagating modes in , which not only reduce phonon group velocities but also enhance phonon–phonon scattering by increasing the number of scattering channels. The resonant effect is particularly pronounced in the low-frequency regime, where the phonon mean free path is reduced by more than one order of magnitude when the doping concentration exceeds 1.82×. This work demonstrates that SCTD not only enables efficient carrier modulation in 2D semiconductors but also provides precise control over thermal transport through the phonon resonance effect, offering a strategy for the design of high-performance 2D thermoelectric materials.