Novel Emerging Materials: Introduction and Evolution

Material discovery and research is at the forefront of all fundamental scientific and technological revolutions. The pursuit of synthesis for high quality materials with novel physical properties mandates precise control of growth process(es) and profound knowledge of structure–property relationships. The book chapter introduces the fundamentals of energy bandgap and energy–momentum dispersion relationships and its implications on the electronic properties of recent emerging material systems including, graphene, topological insulators, Weyl semimetals and III-V nitride semiconductors. The book chapter briefs on the process(es) related issues in synthesizing high quality two-dimensional material systems and introduces twistronics, a new branch of device engineering wherein the relative (twist) angle between the vertically stacked two-dimensional layers dictates the physical properties. The intricate effect of intentional and unintentional doping, electrostatic field effect gating technique on various topological insulator materials are discussed. The importance of high charge carrier mobility in Dirac materials and its significance for functional device and sensor applications are highlighted. The latter part of the chapter discusses the fundamental properties of group-III nitrides and their advantages in optoelectronics and electronics applications. The significance of Group-III nitrides and their alloys emerged as technologically outstanding materials with direct bandgap spanning deep UV to near infrared wavelengths in addition to their excellent electronic properties are discussed. The high-performance optoelectronics and electronic devices of III–V nitrides provided mankind with several benefits with state-of-the-art display and power-saving technologies.