First-Principles-Based Method for Electron Localization: Application to Monolayer Hexagonal Boron Nitride

Abstract

We present a first-principles-based many-body typical medium dynamical cluster approximation and density function theory method for characterizing electron localization in disordered structures. This method applied to monolayer hexagonal boron nitride shows that the presence of boron vacancies could turn this wide-gap insulator into a correlated metal. Depending on the strength of the electron interactions, these calculations suggest that conduction could be obtained at a boron vacancy concentration as low as 1.0%. We also explore the distribution of the local density of states, a fingerprint of spatial variations, which allows localized and delocalized states to be distinguished. The presented method enables the study of disorder-driven insulator-metal transitions not only in h-BN but also in other physical materials.