Edge-functionalization of blue phosphorene nanoribbons: Studied from first-principle methods

Through density functional theory calculations, the impact of edge functionalization with O, OH, and alternate termination of them (OHO) on the structural stabilities, electronic and magnetic properties of blue phosphorene nanoribbons (BPNR) are mainly investigated. The formation energies demonstrate that the O-termination on the BPNRs is the most stable, and OHO-termination is more stable than OH-termination, besides the ab initio dynamic simulation show that they are all thermal dynamically stable at room temperature. Both the ground structures of O- and OH-BPNRs are spin-polarized semiconductors, while OH-functionalized BPNRs are nonmagnetic semiconductors. As the ribbon width increasing, the band gaps of O-aBPNRs tend to 1.04 eV, but that of OH-aBPNRs tend to 1.97 eV, comparable with the band gap of single-layer blue phosphorene, since it is dominated by pz electrons of the inner P atoms. In contrast, the influence of OHO-termination on GNRs, SiNRs, and black PNRs are also studied. Our results demonstrate that OHO-terminated GNRs and SiNRs are not a simple summation of O- and OH-terminated GNRs and SiNRs, and they are nonmagnetic stable both with zigzag and armchair edges, presenting metallic properties. While the OHO-terminated black PNRs present similar electronic and magnetic properties with OHO-terminated blue PNRs, and both the OHO-terminated zigzag and armchair edges are spin-polarized stable. These results provide potential help in the fields of band gap engineering and the designing of phosphorus-based spin devices with control over spin in spintronics.     

Electronic and magnetic properties of pristine and hydrogenated borophene nanoribbons

The groundbreaking works in graphene and graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) over the past decade, and the very recent discovery of borophene naturally draw attention to the yet-to-be-explored borophene nanoribbons (BNRs). We herein report a density functional theory (DFT) study of the electronic and magnetic properties of BNRs. The foci are the impact of orientation (denoted as BxNRs and ByNRs with their respective periodic orientations along x- and y-axis), ribbon width (N_x, N_y=4–15), and hydrogenation effects on the geometric, electronic and magnetic properties of BNRs. We found that the anisotropic quasi-planar geometric structure of BNR and the edge states largely govern its electronic and magnetic properties. In particular, pristine ByNRs adopt a magnetic ground state, either anti-ferromagnetic (AFM) or ferromagnetic (FM) depending on the ribbon width, while pristine BxNRs are non-magnetic (NM). Upon hydrogenation, all BNRs exhibit NM. Interestingly, both pristine and hydrogenated ByNRs undergo a metal-semiconductor-metal transition at N_y=7, while all BxNRs remain metallic.     

过渡金属原子掺杂的锯齿型磷烯纳米带的磁电子学特性

利用基于密度泛函理论的第一性原理方法,研究了掺杂铁、钴和镍原子的锯齿型磷烯纳米带(ZPNR)的磁电子学特性.研究表明,掺杂和未掺杂ZPNR的结构都是稳定的.当处于非磁态时,未掺杂和掺杂钴原子的ZPNR为半导体,而掺杂铁或者镍原子的ZPNR为金属.自旋极化计算表明,未掺杂和掺杂钴原子的ZPNR无磁性,而掺杂铁或者镍原子的ZPNR有磁性,但只能表现出铁磁性.处于铁磁态时,掺杂铁原子的ZPNR为磁性半导体,而掺杂镍原子的ZPNR为磁性半金属.掺杂铁或者镍原子的ZPNR的磁性主要由杂质原子贡献,产生磁性的原因则是在ZPNR中存在未配对电子.掺杂位置对ZPNR的磁电子学特性有一定的影响.该研究对于发展基于磷烯纳米带的纳米电子器件具有重要意义.     

Hydrogen passivation tunes edge magnetism in the ZMoS2NR with a sulfur vacancy

We performed density functional theory study on electronic structure, magnetic properties and stability of zigzag MoS₂ nanoribbons with a S vacancy (ZMoS₂NRs-V_S) and considered their different edge passivation. The ZMoS₂NR-V_S systems are magnetic metals with ferromagnetic (FM) edge states. The magnetic moments are greatly influenced by the site of S vacancy and edge passivation because the vacancy and edge states significantly change the structure of the systems. Importantly, we can achieve distinct FM states such as both edge FM and single edge FM states in the ZMoS₂NRs-V_S by tuning edge passivated pattern. Additionally, edge passivation can not only tune the magnetism of the ZMoS₂NRs-V_S but also enhance their stability by eliminating dangling bonds. These interesting findings on the ZMoS₂NRs may open the possibility of their application in nanodevices and spintronics.     

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.     

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.     

The influence of random edge defects on the electric and optical properties of phosphorene nanoribbons along zigzag direction

Phosphorene nanoribbons are one-dimensional semiconductors with possible edge states falling within its energy bandgap. We build the connection between the possible configurations of edge defects and the corresponding electric and optical properties in practice systems. The influence of the random defects or roughness at the edges of phosphorene nanoribbons cutting along zigzag direction is investigated quantitatively. Theoretical calculations show that the absorption peak due to the transitions involving edge states has an obvious blue shift with the zigzag-type positions at the edges increasing. The absorption thus can be used to estimate the random defects or roughness of the edges of phosphorene nanoribbons.     

Electronic structures and magnetic properties of CrSiTe3 single-layer nanoribbons

One-dimensional nanoribbons usually exhibit considerably different properties compared to their monolayer counterparts due to the formation of edge states and limited width. In this study, we systematically investigate the stability, electronic structures and magnetic properties of CrSiTe₃ single-layer nanoribbons with different edge configurations and ribbon widths using first-principles calculations. The results show that the edge energies (less than 0.4 eV/Å) for all studied CrSiTe₃ nanoribbons are much lower than that of graphene and many transition-metal dichalcogenide nanoribbons, indicating their stability and easy formation. Compared to the CrSiTe₃ monolayer with ferromagnetic semiconductor characteristics, some of CrSiTe₃ nanoribbons (N-SiCr-ZNRs, N-Te-ZNRs, N-TeCr-ANRs and N-Te-ANRs) become half-metal due to the hybridization between the d orbitals of edge Cr atoms and the p orbitals of edge Te atoms. While N-SiTe-ANRs are bipolar magnetic semiconductors, in which the states near Fermi level are localized around the nanoribbons edge. Our results show that CrSiTe₃ single-layer nanoribbons are promising candidates suitable for applications in spintronic devices.     

Half-metallicity induced by out-of-plane electric field on phosphorene nanoribbons

Exploring the half-metallic nanostructures with large band gap and high carrier mobility is a crucial solution for developing high-performance spintronic devices. The electric and magnetic properties of monolayer zigzag black-phosphorene nanoribbons (ZBPNRs) with various widths are analyzed by means of the first-principles calculations. Our results show that the magnetic ground state is dependent on the width of the nanoribbons. The ground state of narrow nanoribbons smaller than 8ZBPNRs prefers ferromagnetic order in the same edge but antiferromagnetic order between two opposite edges. In addition, we also calculate the electronic band dispersion, density of states and charge density difference of 8ZBPNRs under the action of out-of-plane electric field. More interesting, the addition of out-of-plane field can modulate antiferromagnetic semiconductor to the half metal by splitting the antiferromagnetic degeneracy. Our results propose a new approach to realize half-metal in phosphorene, which overcomes the drawbacks of graphene/silicene with negligible band gap as well as the transitional metal sulfide (TMS) with low carrier mobility.     

Electronic and transport properties of zigzag phosphorene nanoribbons doped with ordered Si atoms

Using density functional theory (DFT) and the nonequilibrium Green's function method, we explored the electronic structures and transport properties of zigzag phosphorene nanoribbons (ZPNRs) with ordered doping of Si atoms. Our results show that both pristine and Si-doped ZPNRs exhibit metallic properties and the conductance of the doped ZPNRs nanoribbons can be modulated effectively by changing doping positions and concentrations. As different doping positions, different transmission currents can be obtained even with the same doping concentration. Moreover, current amplification factors vary with the doping concentrations. In addition, compared with the pristine system, negative differential resistance effect can also be observed in doped system (Si3), which occurs in lower bias range.     

Electronic properties of phosphorene and graphene nanoribbons with edge vacancies in magnetic field

The graphene and phosphorene nanostructures have a big potential application in a large area of today's research in physics. However, their methods of synthesis still don't allow the production of perfect materials with an intact molecular structure. In this paper, the occurrence of atomic vacancies was considered in the edge structure of the zigzag phosphorene and graphene nanoribbons. For different concentrations of these edge vacancies, their influence on the metallic properties was investigated. The calculations were performed for different sizes of the unit cell. Furthermore, for a smaller size, the influence of a uniform magnetic field was added.     

First-principles calculations of magnetic edge states in zigzag CrI3 nanoribbons

CrI₃ monolayer has recently drawn much attention due to its two-dimensional long range ferromagnetic order. We find that CrI₃ nanoribbons, which are strips of CrI₃ monolayer, can be used as building blocks of nanodevices. In this paper, we studied the atomic and electronic structures of CrI₃ zigzag nanoribbons by using first-principles calculations. CrI₃ zigzag nanoribbons are also ferromagnet. Interestingly, edge states exist in the system and play an important role in their electronic structures. They dominate the band structures around Fermi level and can be tuned by edge atomic structures. The intrinsic ferromagnetism and rich electronic structures enable CrI₃ zigzag nanoribbons a group of promising candidate materials for spintronics.     

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.     

A first-principles study on zigzag phosphorene nanoribbons terminated by transition metal atoms

We have investigated the electronic and magnetic properties of zigzag phosphorene nanoribbons(ZPNRs)with transition metal(TM)passivated atoms,it can be found that the ZPNRs with TM passivated atoms exhibit different magnetisms except for the Ni-passivated system.Meanwhile,the results show that the magnetic moments of ZPNRs with TM passivated atoms are larger than that of ZPNRs with other passivated non-metals/groups.Interestingly,it can be found that Fe-passivated ZPNR exhibits magnetic semiconducting character,which provides the possbility for the application of phosphorene in information storage.For Mn-passivated ZPNRs,it exhibits the half-metallicity.These results may be useful for potential applications of phosphorene in electronic and high-performance spintronic devices.     

Ballistic thermal transport in black and blue phosphorene nanoribbons and in-plane heterostructures

The thermal transport properties of black and blue phosphorene nanoribbons and in-plane heterostructures are systematically investigated by non-equilibrium Green's-function method. Both edge shape and width have a sensitive influence on the thermal conductance of pristine black and blue phosphorene nanoribbons and they all exhibit a clear anisotropic thermal performance. Interestingly, the in-plane heterostructures possess a tunable thermal conductance which depends on the percentage of black phosphorene nanoribbons and the way how they are linked. These findings will provide new applications in nanoelectronic and thermoelectric devices based on phosphorene.     

The defect impacts of zigzag SiC nanoribbons in the spin devices

In this work, electronic structures and spin transport characteristics of SiC zigzag nanoribbons with defects have been studied by spin-polarized first-principles calculations. It is found that the transport channel of the zigzag SiC nanoribbon device in parallel configurations is located in the edge of nanoribbons. The spin currents can be turned on or off by specific edge defects. As to the antiparallel configuration, all the SiC nanoribbon devices exhibit a perfect dual spin filtering effect, which is immune to the position of defects. By transmission spectra calculations, the corresponding mechanisms of these peculiar effects were explained. The results from this work might indicate a promising pathway for developing spin filters with SiC nanoribbons.     

Influence of edge passivation on the transport properties of the zigzag phosphorene nanoribbons

By using first-principles calculation based on density functional theory and non-equilibrium Green's function method, we investigate the transport properties of zigzag phosphorene nanoribbons (ZPNRs). The edges of the ZPNRs can be passivated in three ways named W1, W2, W3. These calculated results show that the electronic transport properties of the ZPNRs can be seriously influenced by the edge passivation ways, and the transport is determined by both the two edges and the interaction between them. Moreover, we find the width of the ZPNR can switch on or switch off the transport channel of the W3-type ZPNR. Furthermore, we present the transmission spectra, the band structures of both left and right electrodes, the molecular energy levels, and transmission eigenstates of the H-S-passivated W3-type ZPNRs to uncover the transport mechanism. This study provides a theoretical support for designing the related nanodevices by changing the passivation ways, which is an effective route for tuning the electronic structures and the transport properties of the phosphorene nanoribbons.     

Structural stability and electronic properties of Ni-doped armchair graphene nanoribbons

The size dependent electronic properties of armchair graphene nanoribbons (AGNR) with Ni doped atoms have been investigated using spin-unrestricted density functional theory. We predict antiferromagnetic (AFM) ground states for Ni-termination and one edge Ni-doping. The computed formation energy reveals that one edge Ni-terminated AGNR are energetically more favourable as compared to pristine ribbons. One edge substitutional doping is energetically more favourable as compared to centre doping by ∼1 eV whereas both edge doping is unfavourable. The bond length of substitutional Ni atoms is shorter than that of Ni adsorption in GNR, implying a stronger binding for substitutional Ni atoms. It is evident that binding energy is also affected by the coordination number of the foreign atom. The results show that Ni-interaction perturbs the electronic structure of the ribbons significantly, causing enhanced metallicity for all configurations irrespective of doping site. The band structures reveal the separation of spin up and down electronic states indicating towards the existence of spin polarized current in Ni-terminated and one edge doped ribbons. Our calculation predicts that AGNR containing Ni impurities can play an important role for the fabrication of spin filters and spintronic devices.     

Spin dependent electronic transport properties of zigzag black phosphorene nanojunctions induced by H,Li, O,Co asymmetric edge saturations

Two-dimensional (2D) material of few-layer black phosphorus (BP) has recently attracted extensive interest owing to its tunable band gap and high carrier mobility. We investigate the electronic transport properties of zigzag black phosphorene nanoribbons (ZBPNRs) with asymmetric H, Li, O and Co edge saturations by employing the density functional theory in combination with the non-equilibrium Green's function. The computational results forecast that different types of saturated atoms at both edge of ribbons mainly contribute to the electronic transport properties of molecular junctions. The metal edge saturation of Co atom is used to the one edge of ZBPNR which can induce an identical electronic transport property. Interestingly, the negative differential resistance (NDR) phenomena can be observed in our proposed ZBPNR junctions with an analysis of internal physical mechanism. Our theoretical results could support the possibility of potential applications to design 2D electronic devices based on the material of BP in future.     

Nitrogen and Boron substitutional doped zigzag silicene nanoribbons: Ab initio investigation

We performed a spin polarized density-function theory study of the stabilities, electronic and magnetic properties of zigzag silicene nanoribbons (ZSiNRs) substitutionally doped with a single N or B atom located at various sites ranging from edge to center of the ribbon. From minimization of the formation energy, it is found that the substitutional doping is favorable at edge of the ribbon. A single N or B atom substitution one edge Si atom of ZSiNRs can greatly suppress the spin-polarizations of the impurity atom site and its vicinity region, and leads to a transition from antiferromagnetic (AFM) state to ferromagnetic (FM) state, which is attributed to the splitting of the original spin degenerate edge bands. A single N atom doped ZSiNRs still keep semiconductor property but a single B atom doped ZSiNRs exhibit a half-metallic character. Our results reveal that substitution doped ZSiNRs have potential applications in Si-based nanoelectronics, such as field effect transisitors (FETs), negative differential resistance (NDR) and spin filter (SF) devices.