Low-frequency ac transport in silicene nanosystem with normal-metal electrodes

Abstract

Low-frequency ac transport properties are investigated theoretically in the zigzag silicene nanosystem with normal-metal electrode/silicene nanoribbon/normal-metal electrode (NSN) structure. Based on the tight-binding approach and ac transport theory, we numerically compute the dc conductance and ac emittance in the nanosystem, by considering the nearest-neighbor hopping, second-nearest-neighbor spin–orbit interaction (SOI) and external electric field. The results show that the anti-resonance effect, caused by the interface scattering between the silicene ribbon and the normal-metal electrodes, is offset by the relatively strong SOI. The SOI induces a quantum phase transition and establishes a topological edge channel in the real space revealed by the local density of states (LDOS), resulting in a constant dc conductance and a vanishing ac emittance around the Dirac point. Further study suggests that the transport property is topologically protected by the SOI from the geometrical size change of the nanosystem.