Suitability of available interatomic potentials for Sn to model its 2D allotropes

Abstract

The suitability of a range of interatomic potentials for elemental tin was evaluated in order to identify an appropriate potential for modeling the stanene (2D tin) allotropes. Structural and mechanical properties of the flat (F), low-buckled (LB), high-buckled (HB), full dumbbell (FD), trigonal dumbbell (TD), honeycomb dumbbell (HD) and large honeycomb dumbbell (LHD) monolayer tin (stanene) phases, were gained by means of the density functional theory (DFT) and molecular statics (MS) calculations with ten different Tersoff, modified embedded atom method (MEAM) and machine-learning-based (ML-IAP) interatomic potentials. A systematic quantitative comparison and discussion of the results are reported.