Carrier transport properties of the orthorhombic phase boron nitride nanoribbons and rectifying device design

Abstract

Using density functional theory combined with non‐equilibrium Green’s function, we investigate the electronic structures and carrier transport properties of the orthorhombic phase boron nitride nanoribbons (BNNRs) with different edges and different widths. The calculated results show that both armchair‐ and zigzag‐edged BNNRs are direct bandgap semiconductors. The quantum confinement gives rise to a distinct bandgap for the one‐dimensional (1D) BNNRs, and the edged atoms play an important role on their electronic structures. The bandgaps of the armchair‐edged BNNRs approach 0.5∽0.8 eV when their widths are sufficiently large. However, the electronic structures of the zigzag‐edged BNNRs exhibit more variations dependent on their edged atoms. The J‐V characteristics of the BNNRs reveal that the zigzag‐edged BNNRs have superior J‐V performance to that of the armchair‐edged counterparts. Eventually, we propose a computational nanodevice design to achieve rectifying behavior by constructing an in‐plane heterojunction based on the BNNRs without any doping, and the left‐ and right‐electrode is formed by differnetly edged atoms and a small strain is performed on the left‐electrode. The rectification ratio of about 77.36 is realized. Our findings provide comprehensive understandings of the orthorhombic boron nitride monolayer, which could be helpful to its potential application for nanoelectronics.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.