The electric field effect in ultrathin zigzag graphene nanoribbons containing only three or four zigzag carbon chains is studied by first-principles calculations, and the change of conducting mechanism is observed wit...The electric field effect in ultrathin zigzag graphene nanoribbons containing only three or four zigzag carbon chains is studied by first-principles calculations, and the change of conducting mechanism is observed with increasing in-plane electric field perpendicular to the ribbon. Wider zigzag graphene nanoribbons have been predicted to be spin-splitted for both valence band maximum（VBM） and conduction band minimum（CBM） with an applied electric field and become half-metal due to the vanishing band gap of one spin with increasing applied field. The change of VBM for the ultrathin zigzag graphene nanoribbons is similar to that for the wider ones when an electric field is applied. However, in the ultrathin zigzag graphene nanoribbons, there are two kinds of CBMs, one is spin-degenerate and the other is spin-splitted, and both are tunable by the electric field. Moreover, the two CBMs are spatially separated in momentum space. The conducting mechanism changes from spin-degenerate CBM to spin-splitted CBM with increasing applied electric field. Our results are confirmed by density functional calculations with both LDA and GGA functionals, in which the LDA always underestimates the band gap while the GGA normally produces a bigger band gap than the LDA.展开更多
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.11204201 and 11147142)the Natural Science Foundation for Young Scientists of Shanxi Province,China(Grant No.2013021010-1)
文摘The electric field effect in ultrathin zigzag graphene nanoribbons containing only three or four zigzag carbon chains is studied by first-principles calculations, and the change of conducting mechanism is observed with increasing in-plane electric field perpendicular to the ribbon. Wider zigzag graphene nanoribbons have been predicted to be spin-splitted for both valence band maximum（VBM） and conduction band minimum（CBM） with an applied electric field and become half-metal due to the vanishing band gap of one spin with increasing applied field. The change of VBM for the ultrathin zigzag graphene nanoribbons is similar to that for the wider ones when an electric field is applied. However, in the ultrathin zigzag graphene nanoribbons, there are two kinds of CBMs, one is spin-degenerate and the other is spin-splitted, and both are tunable by the electric field. Moreover, the two CBMs are spatially separated in momentum space. The conducting mechanism changes from spin-degenerate CBM to spin-splitted CBM with increasing applied electric field. Our results are confirmed by density functional calculations with both LDA and GGA functionals, in which the LDA always underestimates the band gap while the GGA normally produces a bigger band gap than the LDA.
