Stability of boron nitride bilayers: Ground state energies, interlayer distances, and tight-binding description

Department of Physics and Center of Physics, University of Minho, PT-4710-057, Braga, Portugal(Dated: January 21, 2011)We have studied boron nitride monolayer and bilayer band structures. For bilayers, the groundstate energies of the different five stackings are computed using DFT in order to determine the moststable configuration. Also, the interlayer distance for the five different types of stacking in whichboron-nitride bilayers can be found is determined. Using a minimal tight binding model for theband structures of boron nitride bilayers, the hopping parameters and the onsite energies have beenextracted by fitting a tight binding empirical model to the DFT results.