  Selenium is a crucial earth-abundant and non-toxic semiconductor with a wide
range of applications across the semiconductor industries. Selenium has drawn
attention from scientific communities for its wide range of applicability: from
photovoltaics to imaging devices. Its usage as a photosensitive material
largely involves the synthesis of the amorphous phase (a-Se) via various
experimental techniques. However, the ground state crystalline phase of this
material, known as the trigonal selenium (\textit{t}-Se), is not extensively
studied for its optimum electronic and optical properties. In this work, we
present density functional theory (DFT) based systematic studies on the
ultra-thin $(10\overline{1}0)$ surface slabs of \textit{t}-Se. We report the
surface energies, work function, electronic and optical properties as a
function of number of layers for $(10\overline{1}0)$ surface slabs to access
its suitability for applications as a photosensitive material.
