Silicane nanoribbons: electronic structure and electric field modulation

We present electronic band structure, Gibbs free energy of formation, and electric field modulation calculations for silicane nanoribbons (NRs), i.e., completely hydrogenated or fluorinated silicene NRs, using density functional theory. We find that although the completely hydrogenated silicene (H-silicane) sheet in the chair-like configuration is an indirect-band-gap semiconductor, a direct band gap can be achieved in the zigzag H-silicane NRs by using Brillouin-zone folding. Compared to H-silicane NRs, the band gaps of completely fluorinated silicene (F-silicane) NRs reduce at least by half. For all silicane NRs considered here, the Gibbs free energy of formation is negative but shows different trends by changing the ribbon width for H-silicane NRs and F-silicane NRs. Furthermore, by analyzing the effect of transverse electric fields on the electronic properties of silicane NRs, we show that an external electric field can make the electrons and holes states spatially separated and even render silicane NRs self-doped. The tunable electronic properties of silicane NRs make them suitable for nanotechnology application.