Electronic Structure and the Properties of Phosphorene and Few-Layer Black Phosphorus

A single atomic layer of black phosphorus, phosphorene, was experimentally realized in 2014. It has a puckered honeycomb lattice structure and a semiconducting electronic structure. In the first part of this paper, we use a simple LCAO model, and discuss qualitatively the electronic structure of phosphorene systems under electric and magnetic fields, especially, noting their midgap edge states. The next part is spent for the review of the research progress on phosphorene in the past one year since its appearance in 2014. Phosphorene has been a typical object to study the semiconductor physics in atomic layers.