Electronic structure of monolayer antimonene nanoribbons under out-of-plane and transverse bias

Abstract

A systematic study of the electronic properties of single layer Sb (antimonene) nanoribbons is presented. By using a 6-orbital tight-binding Hamiltonian, we study the electronic band structure of finite ribbons with zigzag or armchair termination. We show that there is good agreement between ab initio calculations and the tight-binding model. We study how the size of the gap can be controlled by applying an external bias potential. An electric field applied perpendicular to the antimonene layer is found to increase the band gap, while a transverse bias potential leads to a position dependent reduction of the band gap. Both kinds of bias potential break inversion symmetry of the crystal. This, together with the strong intrinsic spin-orbit coupling of antimonene, leads to spin-splitting of the valence band states.