Carrier Transport Properties of the Orthorhombic Phase Boron Nitride Nanoribbons and Rectifying Device Design

Abstract

Using density functional theory combined with nonequilibrium Green's function, the electronic structures and carrier transport properties of the orthorhombic phase boron nitride nanoribbons (BNNRs) with different edges and different widths are investigated. 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 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, a computational nanodevice design is proposed to achieve rectifying behavior by constructing an in‐plane heterojunction based on the BNNRs without any doping, and the left and right electrodes are formed by differently edged atoms and a small strain is performed on the left electrode. The rectification ratio of about 77.36 is realized. The findings provide comprehensive understandings of the orthorhombic BN monolayer, which can be helpful to its potential application for nanoelectronics.