Dynamic conductance in double-bend silicene nanosystem

Abstract

In this work, dynamic conductance transport properties are theoretically investigated in the zigzag silicene nanosystem with a double-bend structure. We numerically study the dc conductance and ac emittance in the nanosystem based on the tight-binding approach, Green's function method and ac transport theory, by considering the second-nearest-neighbor spin–orbit interaction (SOI) and external electric field. The numerical results suggest that the nanosystem undergoes a quantum phase transition driven by the relatively strong SOI, which results in a large dc conductance and a vanishing ac emittance around the Dirac point despite the interface scattering. The distribution of the local density of states in the real space reveals that the SOI induces the quantum edge state by establishing transport paths at the edge of the nanosystem. Further investigation indicates that the dynamic conductance related to the quantum edge state are topologically protected from the geometrical size change of the nanosystem. Finally, the nanosystem can be tuned to be a trivial band insulator without any dc or ac response by applying external electric field.