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Strong bulk-surface interaction dominated in-plane anisotropy of electronic structure in GaTe

Recently, intriguing physical properties have been unraveled in anisotropic layered semiconductors, in which the in-plane electronic band structure anisotropy often originates from the low crystallographic symmetry and thus a thickness-independent character emerges. Here, we apply high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to directly image the in-plane anisotropic energy bands in monoclinic gallium telluride (GaTe). Our first-principles calculations reveal the in-plane anisotropic energy band structure of GaTe measured experimentally is dominated by a strong bulk-surface interaction rather than geometric factors, surface effect and quantum confinement effect. Furthermore, accompanied by the thickness of GaTe increasing from mono- to few-layers, the strong interlayer coupling of GaTe induces direct-indirect-direct band gap transitions and the in-plane anisotropy of hole effective mass is reversed. Our results shed light on the physical origins of in-plane anisotropy of electronic structure in GaTe, paving the way for the design and device applications of nanoelectronics and optoelectronics based on anisotropic layered semiconductors.