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High-mobility transport anisotropy and linear dichroism in few-layer black phosphorus

Two-dimensional crystals are emerging materials for nanoelectronics. Development of the field requires candidate systems with both a high carrier mobility and, in contrast to graphene, a sufficiently large electronic bandgap. Here we present a detailed theoretical investigation of the atomic and electronic structure of few-layer black phosphorus (BP) in order to predict its electrical and optical properties. This system has a direct bandgap, tunable from 1.51 eV for a monolayer to 0.59 eV for a 5-layer sample. We predict that the mobilities are hole-dominated, rather high and highly anisotropic. The monolayer is exceptional in having an extremely high hole-mobility (of order 10000 cm$^{2}$ V$^{-1}$ s$^{-1}$) and anomalous elastic properties which reverse the anisotropy. Light absorption spectra indicate linear dichroism between perpendicular in-plane directions, which allows optical determination of the crystalline orientation and optical activation of the anisotropic transport properties. These results make few-layer BP a promising candidate for future electronics.