In recent years, much interest in the study of Van der Waals heterostructures (vdWhs) has arisen. This has led to a significant amount of fundamental research being produced, from which novel optoelectronic applications have been established. By using first principles, we analyze the electronic structure of silicane/SnSe2 vdWhs in the response to an externally applied electric field and a normal strain. The results show that the silicane/SnSe2 vdWh acts as an indirect semiconductor when it is subjected to an applied electric field between −1 and 0.1 V/Å and becomes a metal in the 0.2 to 1 V/Å range. Significantly, the electronic band alignments of the silicane/SnSe2 vdWhs are modified from a type-II to a type-I when a field of −0.7 V/Å is applied. Furthermore, it is determined that the silicane/SnSe2 vdWhs appears to have a semiconductor-metal phase transition at a strain of −5%. Our results indicate that the silicane/SnSe2 vdWhs have the potential for applications in novel high-performance optoelectronic devices.
Publisher’s Note: “Tunable band gap of MoS2-SiC van der Waals heterostructures under normal strain and an external electric field” [AIP Advances 7, 015116 (2017)]