Interest in two dimensional materials has exploded in recent years. Not only are they studied due to their novel electronic properties, such as the emergent Dirac Fermion in graphene, but also as a new paradigm in which stacking layers of distinct two-dimensional materials may enable different functionalities or devices. Here, through first-principles theory, we reveal a large new class of two-dimensional materials which are derived from traditional III-V, II-VI, and I-VII semiconductors. It is found that in the ultra-thin limit most of the traditional binary semi-conductors studied (a series of 28 semiconductors) stabilize in a two dimensional double layer honeycomb (DLHC) structure, as opposed to the wurtzite or zinc-blende structures associated with three-dimensional bulk. Not only does this greatly increase the landscape of two-dimensional materials, but it is shown that in the double-layer honeycomb form, even ordinary semiconductors, such as GaAs, can exhibit exotic topological properties.

Shengbai Zhang received his Ph. D. in Physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1989. He moved to Xerox PARC as a postdoc, before joining the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in 1991. In 2008, he became the Senior Kodosky Constellation Chair Professor and Professor in Physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His computational research covers a wide range of materials for bulk properties, defect structures, and surface physics. His recent work involves green photovoltaic materials, ultrafast phase change memory materials, topological carbon, two-dimensional layered structures, and excited state dynamics.