Defect engineering of ultrathin gallium nitride via electric fields for advanced electronic, magnetic, and gas sensing applications

Scaling wide-band-gap semiconductors to the ultrathin limit offers a transformative pathway for power electronics, with gallium nitride (GaN) representing a cornerstone material in this class. However, the operational resilience and functional tunability of its two-dimensional form (g-GaN) remain underexplored. This work shifts the focus from idealized systems to the complex materials behavior under realistic conditions, investigating how the synergistic effects of point vacancy defects, strain, and external electric fields govern its electronic, magnetic, and sensing landscapes. We demonstrate that these factors are not merely perturbations but are fundamental to modulating the material response. Our first-principles calculations suggest g-GaN maintains electronic stability under intense electric fields; notably, gallium vacancies are predicted to further extend the theoretical stability limit. While in-plane tension preserves the band gap evolution under an electric field, in-plane compression facilitates low-field metallization. Using nitrogen monoxide (NO) adsorption as a prototype, we find that the interaction is defect-modulated and potentially tunable by electric fields. Analysis of adsorption energetics and diffusion barriers suggests the gallium vacancy may act as a thermodynamic trap for NO. Targeted hybrid-functional (HSE06) validation confirms the reliability of observed adsorption trends and theoretical metallization thresholds, while revealing that precise electronic-exchange treatment is critical for capturing the magnetic ground state of nitrogen vacancies. By systematically examining the geometry, energetics, band structure, density of states, magnetic response, and charge transfer, this study clarifies the interplay between defects and external electric fields, providing insights into theoretical upper bounds for property tuning and semiconductor device engineering.