Electronic properties of α-graphyne nanoribbons under the electric field effect

In this paper, we investigate the electronic structure of both armchair and zigzag α-graphyne nanoribbons. We use a simple tight binding model to study the variation of the electronic band gap in α-graphyne nanoribbon. The effects of ribbon width, transverse electric field and edge shape on the electronic structure have been studied. Our results show that in the absence of external electric field, zigzag α-graphyne nanoribbons are semimetal and the electronic band gap in armchair α-graphyne nanoribbon oscillates and decreases with ribbon's width. By applying an external electric field the band gap in the electronic structure of zigzag α-graphyne nanoribbon opens and oscillates with ribbon width and electric field magnitude. Also the band gap of armchair α-graphyne nanoribbon decreases in low electric field, but it has an oscillatory growth behavior for high strength of external electric field.     

Structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of pristine and oxygen-adsorbed graphene nanoribbons

The structural, electronic and magnetic properties of pristine and oxygen-adsorbed (3,0) zigzag and (6,1) armchair graphene nanoribbons have been investigated theoretically, by employing the ab initio pseudopotential method within the density functional scheme. The zigzag nanoribbon is more stable with antiferromagnetically coupled edges, and is semiconducting. The armchair nanoribbon does not show any preference for magnetic ordering and is semiconducting. The oxygen molecule in its triplet state is adsorbed most stably at the edge of the zigzag nanoribbon. The Stoner metallic behaviour of the ferromagnetic nanoribbons and the Slater insulating (ground state) behaviour of the antiferromagnetic nanoribbons remain intact upon oxygen adsorption. However, the local magnetic moment of the edge carbon atom of the ferromagnetic zigzag ribbon is drastically reduced, due to the formation of a spin-paired C-O bond.     

氢化与非氢化石墨烯纳米条带的密度泛函研究

基于密度泛函理论的第一性原理计算方法,研究了宽度N=8的边缘氢化和非氢化条带的结构和电子性质. 研究表明,扶手形无氢化石墨纳米条带的边缘碳原子是以三重键相互结合,它在边缘的成键强度比氢化时要高,具有更强的化学活性,可作为纳米化学传感器的基础材料. 能带结构计算表明,无论是扶手形条带还是锯齿形条带,它们都是具有带隙的半导体,且无氢化条带的带隙要比氢化的条带带隙宽度大,氢化对于条带的电子性质具有显著修饰作用. 通过锯齿形石墨纳米条带顺磁性、铁磁性和反铁磁性的计算,发现反铁磁的状态最稳定,并且边缘磁性最强,这有利于条带在自旋电子器件中的应用. 关键词： 石墨纳米条带 成键机理 电子结构 自旋分布     

First-principles study on the structural and electronic properties of AlNCx nanosheet

The structural and electronic properties of a hydrogen terminated hexagonally AlN nanoribbon with 6 zigzag Al-N chains across the ribbon width (6-ZAlNNR) and the hexagonally bonded hetero-sheets AlNC_x (x=2,4,6) consisting of AlN and graphite strips with zigzag shaped borders have been investigated systemically by using the first-principles. The results show that in 6-ZAlNNR, the states of the lowest unoccupied conduction band (LUCB) and the highest occupied valence band (HOVB) at zone boundary Z are edge states whose charges are localized at edge Al and N atoms, respectively. Introducing the graphite strip C_x and increasing its width lead to the LUCB and HOVB getting closer with each other especially in flat dispersion region around the zone boundary J_y, thus decreasing in the energy gap of the hetero-sheets AlNC₂, AlNC₄ and AlNC₆ successively. Similar to the edge states existing in zigzag edged AlNNR, the flat dispersion border states also exist in the zigzag borders of hexagonally networked hetero-sheets AlNC_x. Unlike the edge states whose charges are localized at one of the edge atoms, the border states are localized at two atoms of the borders with either bonding or antibonding character.     

Localized electronic states on graphite edge

Examining the band structure of graphite ribbons with a typical edge shapes of armchair or zigzag, we find that minute graphite in a nanometer scale shows a striking contrast in the π electronic states depending on the edge shape. A wide armchair ribbon can reproduces the electronic state of graphite, but a zigzag ribbon shows a pair of partly flat bands which gives a remarkable peak of density of states at the Fermi level. We derive the analytic solution of this peculiar Edge State, disclosing the puzzle of its emergence.     

Carbon nanoribbons and nanotubes based on δ-graphyne: A first-principles study

As a stable allotropy of two-dimensional (2D) carbon materials, δ-graphyne has been predicted to be superior to graphene in many aspects. Using first-principles calculations, we investigated the electronic properties of carbon nanoribbons (CNRs) and nanotubes (CNTs) formed by δ-graphyne. It is found that the electronic band structures of CNRs depend on the edge structure and the ribbon width. The CNRs with zigzag edges (Z-CNRs) have spin-polarized edge states with ferromagnetic (FM) ordering along each edge and anti-ferromagnetic (AFM) ordering between two edges. The CNRs with armchair edges (A-CNRs), however, are semiconductors with the band gap oscillating with the ribbon width. For the CNTs built by rolling up δ-graphyne with different chirality, the electronic properties are closely related to the chirality of the CNTs. Armchair (n, n) CNTs are metallic while zigzag (n, 0) CNTs are semiconducting or metallic. These interesting properties are quite crucial for applications in δ-graphyne-based nanoscale devices.     

周期性纳米洞内边缘氧饱和石墨烯纳米带的电子特性

利用基于密度泛函理论的第一性原理方法,研究了内边缘氧饱和的周期性凿洞石墨烯纳米带（G NR）的电子特性. 研究结果表明：对于凿洞锯齿形石墨烯纳米带（ZGNRs）,在非磁性态时不仅始终为金属,且金属性明显增强;反铁磁态（AFM）时为半导体的ZGNR,凿洞后可能成为金属;但铁磁态（FM）为金属的ZGNR,凿洞后一般变为半导体或半金属. 而对于凿洞的扶手椅形石墨烯（AGNRs）,其带隙会明显增加. 深入分析发现：这是由于氧原子对石墨烯纳米带边的电子特性有重要的影响,以及颈次级纳米带（NSNR）及边缘次级纳米带（ESNR）的不同宽度及边缘形状（锯齿或扶手椅形）能呈现出不同的量子限域效应. 这些研究对于发展纳米电子器件有重要的意义. 关键词： 石墨烯纳米带 纳米洞 内边缘氧饱和 电子特性     

Relative stability of armchair,zigzag and reczag graphene edges on the Ru(0001) surface

The relative stability of armchair, zigzag, and the reconstructed zigzag (reczag) graphene edges was studied using density functional theory with the Perdew, Burke, and Ernzerhof (PBE) exchange correlation functional for graphene nanoribbons in vacuo and on the Ru(0001) surface. Although the reczag edge was found to be more stable in vacuo confirming previous predictions of Koskinen et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 101 (2008) 115502], the relative stability reverses upon adsorption on the Ru(0001) surface. The zigzag edge is more stable than the reczag edge on the surface by about 0.15 eV/Å and the armchair ribbon was found to be approximately isoenergetic with the zigzag ribbon. For all three types of edges, strong edge–Ru interactions are observed that cause the edges to buckle down. The lowered edge height may facilitate C attachments at graphene edges during graphene synthesis.     

Persistent currents in a graphene ring with armchair edges

A graphene nanoribbon with armchair edges is known to have no edge state. However, if the nanoribbon is in the quantum spin Hall state, then there must be helical edge states. By folding a graphene ribbon into a ring and threading it by a magnetic flux, we study the persistent charge and spin currents in the tight-binding limit. It is found that, for a broad ribbon, the edge spin current approaches a finite value independent of the radius of the ring. For a narrow ribbon, inter-edge coupling between the edge states could open the Dirac gap and reduce the overall persistent currents. Furthermore, by enhancing the Rashba coupling, we find that the persistent spin current gradually reduces to zero at a critical value beyond which the graphene is no longer a quantum spin Hall insulator.     

Strain effect on transport properties of hexagonal boronben nitride nanoribbons

The transport properties of hexagonal boron--nitride nanoribbons under the uniaxial strain are investigated by the Green's function method. We find that the transport properties of armchair boron--nitride nanoribbon strongly depend on the strain. In particular, the features of the conductance steps such as position and width are significantly changed by strain. As a strong tensile strain is exerted on the nanoribbon, the highest conductance step disappears and subsequently a dip emerges instead. The energy band structure and the local current density of armchair boron--nitride nanoribbon under strain are calculated and analysed in detail to explain these characteristics. In addition, the effect of strain on the conductance of zigzag boron--nitride nanoribbon is weaker than that of armchair boron nitride nanoribbon.     

First-principles predictions of the geometries and electronic structures of tungsten ditelluride nanoribbons

First-principles calculations are carried out to predict the structures and electronic properties of 2H- and Td-WTe₂ nanoribbons with different termination edges. It is found that the 2H-WTe₂ nanoribbon along the armchair direction and the Td-WTe₂ nanoribbon along the X direction show semiconducting characters with tunable band gaps. The 2H-WTe₂ nanoribbon along the zigzag direction and the Td-WTe₂ nanoribbon along the Y direction show metallic characters.     

Decay and the double-decay properties of edge bands of phosphorene ribbons

Phosphorene (a monolayer of black phosphorus) recently spurred much attention due to its potential for application. We notice there are two types of zigzag edge and two types of armchair edge for phosphorene lattice. We study the winding number of various types of edge of phosphorene ribbons and conclude that, besides on the typical zigzag edge, the flat zero-energy edge band can be found in the ribbon of another nontypical armchair edge. The localization of these edge bands is investigated analytically. We find every single edge state of the atypical armchair edge decays to the bulk at two different decay rates.     

Symmetrical metallic and magnetic edge states of nanoribbon from semiconductive monolayer PtS2

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) MoS₂ or graphene could be designed to metallic nanoribbons, which always have only one edge show metallic properties due to symmetric protection. In present work, a nanoribbon with two parallel metallic and magnetic edges was designed from a noble TMD PtS₂ by employing first-principles calculations based on density functional theory (DFT). Edge energy, bonding charge density, band structure, density of states (DOS) and simulated scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) of four possible edge states of monolayer semiconductive PtS₂ were systematically studied. Detailed calculations show that only Pt-terminated edge state among four edge states was relatively stable, metallic and magnetic. Those metallic and magnetic properties mainly contributed from 5d orbits of Pt atoms located at edges. What's more, two of those central symmetric edges coexist in one zigzag nanoribbon, which providing two atomic metallic wires thus may have promising application for the realization of quantum effects, such as Aharanov–Bohm effect and atomic power transmission lines in single nanoribbon.     

石墨带的晶格动力学研究

基于晶格动力学理论,采用力常数模型,计算了石墨带的声子色散关系、振动模式密度和比热.计算结果表明,石墨带的声子谱特征介于一维碳纳米管和二维石墨片之间.扶手椅型和锯齿型石墨带的中、高频声子支分别与锯齿型和扶手椅型碳纳米管的类似.由于声子限域效应,低频声子支随着石墨带带宽的改变出现明显的频移现象.振动模式密度在高频区几乎不敏感于带宽,而低频区的峰位随着带宽的增加而逐渐向低频移动.此外,无论是在低温还是高温,比热都随着带宽的增加而逐渐降低,呈现量子尺寸效应.在300K时,比热可以拟合成C_V=C_Vg+A/n,其中C_Vg为石墨片的热容,而A/n项反映了石墨带中边缘效应对比热的影响. 关键词： 石墨带 声子色散关系 比热     

First-principles study on structural and electronic properties of AlNSix heterosheet

Under generalized gradient approximation (GGA), the structural and electronic properties of AlN and Si sheets, hydrogen terminated AlN and Si nanoribbons with hexagonal morphology and 2, 4, 6 zigzag chains across the ribbon width and the hexagonally bonded heterosheets AlNSi_x (x=2, 4, and 6) consisting of hexagonal networks of AlN (h-AlN) strips and silicene sheets with zigzag shaped borders have been investigated using the first-principles projector-augmented wave (PAW) formalism within the density function theory (DFT) framework. The AlN sheet is an indirect semiconductor with a band gap of 2.56 eV, while the Si sheet has a metallic character since the lowest unoccupied conduction band (LUCB) and the highest occupied valence band (HOVB) meet at one k point from Γ to Z. In the semiconductor 6-ZAlNNR, for example, the states of LUCB and HOVB at zone boundary Z are edge states whose charges are localized at edge Al and N atoms, respectively. In metallic 6-ZSiNR, a flat edge state is formed at the Fermi level E_F near the zone boundary Z because its charges are localized at edge Si atoms. The hybridizations between the edge states of h-AlN strips and silicene sheets result in the appearance of border states in the zigzag borders of heterosheets AlNSi_x whose charges are localized at two atoms of the borders with either bonding or antibonding π character.     

First-principles investigation of armchair stanene nanoribbons

In this study, we systematically investigated the structural, electronic and optical properties of armchair stanene nanoribbons (ASNRs) by using the first-principles calculations. First, we performed full geometry optimization calculations on various finite width ASNRs where all the edge Sn atoms are saturated by hydrogen atoms. The buckled honeycomb structure of two dimensional (2D) stanene is preserved, however the bond length between the edge Sn atoms is shortened to 2.77 Å compared to the remaining bonds with 2.82 Å length. The electronic properties of these nanoribbons strongly depend on their ribbon width. In general, band gap opens and increases with decreasing nanoribbon width indicating the quantum confinement effect. Consequently, the band gap values vary from a few meV exhibiting low-gap semiconductor (quasi-metallic) behavior to ～0.4–0.5 eV showing moderate semiconductor character. Furthermore, the band gap values are categorized into three groups according to modulo 3 of integer ribbon width N which is the number of Sn atoms along the width. In order to investigate the optical properties, we calculated the complex dielectric function and absorption spectra of ASNRs, they are similar to the one of 2D stanene. For light polarized along ASNRs, in general, largest peaks appear around 0.5 eV and 4.0 eV in the imaginary part of dielectric functions, and there are several smaller peaks between them. These major peaks redshifts, slightly to the lower energies of incident light with increasing nanoribbon width. On the other hand, for light polarized perpendicular to the ribbon, there is a small peak around 1.6 eV, then, there is a band formed from several peaks from 5 eV to ～7.5 eV, and the second one from 8 eV to ～9.5 eV. Moreover, the peak positions hardly move with varying nanoribbon width, which indicates that quantum confinement effect is not playing an essential role on the optical properties of armchair stanene nanoribbons. In addition, our calculations of the optical properties indicate the anisotropy with respect to the type of light polarization. This anisotropy is due to the quasi-2D nature of the nanoribbons.     

Effect of the dangling bond on the electronic and magnetic properties of BN nanoribbon

The effect of the dangling bond on the electronic and magnetic properties of BN nanoribbon with zigzag edge (ZBNNR) and armchair edge (ABNNR) have been studied using the first-principles projector-augmented wave (PAW) potential within the density function theory (DFT) framework. Though ZBNNR or ABNNR with H atom terminated at both edges is nonmagnetic semiconductor, the dangling bond induces magnetism for the ZBNNR with bare N edge, bare B edge, bare N and B edges, the ABNNR with bare N edge and bare B edge. However, the ABNNR with bare N and B edges is still nonmagnetic semiconductor due to the strong coupling of the dangling bonds of dimeric N and B atoms at the same edge. The magnetic moment of ZBNNR with bare N(B) edge is nearly half the magnetic moment of ABNNR with bare N(B) edge. Such a half relationship is also existed in the number of the dangling bond states appeared around the Fermi level in the band structures. Furthermore, the dangling bond states also cause both ZBNNR and ABNNR with bare N edge a transition from semiconducting to half-metallic and thus a completely (100%) spin-polarization, while cause both ZBNNR and ABNNR with bare B edge as well as ABNNR with bare N and B edges only a decrease in their band gap.     

Electronic specific heat of nanographite ribbons

The electronic specific heat of nanographite ribbons exhibits rich temperature dependence, mainly owing to the special band structures. The thermal property strongly depends on the geometric structures, the edge structure and the width. There is a simple relation between the ribbon width and the electronic specific heat for the metallic or semiconducting armchair ribbons. However, it is absent for the zigzag ribbons. The metallic armchair ribbons exhibit linear temperature dependence. The semiconducting armchair ribbons exhibit composite behavior of power and exponential functions. As for the zigzag ribbons, the temperature dependence of the specific heat is proportional to T^1−p. The value of p quickly increases from to 1 as the ribbon width gradually grows. The zigzag ribbons might be the first system which exhibits the novel temperature dependence. The nanographite ribbons differ from an infinite graphite sheet, which illustrates that the finite-size effects are significant.     

Effect of oxidation of graphene nanoribbons on electronic and magnetic properties

The electronic properties, band gap and ionization potential as well as the energies of the singlet and triplet states of zigzag and armchair graphene nanoribbons are calculated as a function of the number of oxygen atoms on the ribbon employing density functional theory at B3LYP/6-31G* level. The calculated band gaps indicate that both structures are semiconducting. The band gap of the armchair ribbons initially decreases followed by an increase with oxygen number. For zigzag ribbons the band gap decreases with increasing oxygen number whereas the ionization potential increases with oxygen content. In both armchair and zigzag ribbons the ionization potential shows a gradual increase with the number of oxygen atoms. Some of the oxygenated ribbons calculated have triplet ground states and have the density of states at the Fermi level for spin down greater than spin up suggesting the possibility they may be ferromagnetic semiconductors.     

Detection of valley currents in graphene nanoribbons

There are two valleys in the band structure of graphene zigzag ribbons, which can be used to construct valleytronic devices. We studied the use of a T junction formed by an armchair ribbon and a zigzag ribbon to detect the valley-dependent currents in a zigzag graphene ribbon. A current flowing in a zigzag ribbon is divided by the T junction into the zigzag and armchair leads and this separation process is valley dependent. By measuring the currents in the two outgoing leads, the valley-dependent currents in the incoming lead can be determined. The method does not require superconducting or magnetic elements as in other approaches and thus will be useful in the development of valleytronic devices.