A Numerical Simulation of C3N Nanoribbon-Based Field-Effect Transistors

Abstract

In this paper, the electron transport properties of a C <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> N nanoribbon-based field-effect transistor (FET) in the ballistic regime have been simulated. Using the density-functional theory (DFT) to obtain the band structures, we found that the armchair-edged C <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> N nanoribbons are semiconductors, and their bandgaps are determined by their widths, while the zigzag-edged ribbons present the metallic properties. We have carried out calculations to study the transport properties of armchair-edged C <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> N nanoribbon by using DFT combined with the nonequilibrium Green's function. Our simulation results revealed that both bandgap and current on/off ratio are reduced as the width increasing. Moreover, the gate length, channel length, and ribbon's width are found to have prominent influences on the transfer characteristics. The armchair-edged C <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> N nanoribbon-based FETs have the highest current on/off ratio of 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">6</sup> and the ideal subthreshold swing of 61.2 mV/dec, which make it promising for potential applications of FET.