Light adatoms influences on electronic structures of the two-dimensional arsenene nanosheets

•Electronic structure and magnetism of light atom-adsorbed arsenene nanosheets are studied.•The O-adsorbed arsenene nanosheets present non-magnetic ground states.•B, C, N and F adatoms can induce the magnetism in the arsenene nanosheets.

Gray arsenic monolayer named as arsenene is a new kind of two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor material. Herein, we focus on the electronic structures of the light atoms (such as B, C, N, O, F) adsorbed arsenene nanosheets by using first-principles calculations. The results show that most adatoms prefer to occupy the bridge site on the arsenene nanosheets except for the C adatom which prefer to valley site. The defect states can be found in the middle gap of the F adsorbed arsenene nanosheets, and N adatom can induce the n-type doping in the system. Moreover, O adatom has negligible effects on its electronic structures. In addition, B, C, N and F adatoms can induce the magnetism in the arsenene nanosheets.