Novel electronic transport of zigzag graphdiyne nanoribbons induced by edge states

Department of Applied Physics, School of Science, Xi'an Jiaotong University - Xi'an 710049, China MOE Key Laboratory for Non-equilibrium Synthesis and Modulation of Condensed Matter, Xi'an Jiaotong University - Xi'an 710049, China

^(a) zhangsl@mail.xjtu.edu.cn (corresponding author)

Received: 28 May 2014
Accepted: 9 August 2014

Abstract

The electronic structure and transport of graphdiyne nanoribbons are investigated theoretically by ab initio calculations. We find that some edge states of zigzag graphdiyne nanoribbons are confined in a narrow energy range. For non-magnetic zigzag graphdiyne nanoribbons, the edge states whose energy is near the valence band top form a special electronic transport channel and lead to current peaks (about several μA) at small bias below the conduction voltage. However, ferromagnetic graphdiyne nanoribbons do not have such current peaks because the edge states energy is much higher than the valence band top and the transport channel cannot be formed. Such special effect, which is not found in graphene nanoribbons, does not depend on the width of zigzag graphdiyne nanoribbons. According to the result, it is feasible to apply this novel property to design a magnetically controllable nanoscale switch.