Electronic properties of α-graphyne nanoribbons under the electric field effect

• A tight binding study of α-graphyne nanoribbons is presented.
• We study the role of an external electric field on the electronic structure.
• The electric field tunes the electronic band gap.

In this paper, we investigate the electronic structure of both armchair and zigzag α-graphyne nanoribbons. We use a simple tight binding model to study the variation of the electronic band gap in α-graphyne nanoribbon. The effects of ribbon width, transverse electric field and edge shape on the electronic structure have been studied. Our results show that in the absence of external electric field, zigzag α-graphyne nanoribbons are semimetal and the electronic band gap in armchair α-graphyne nanoribbon oscillates and decreases with ribbon's width. By applying an external electric field the band gap in the electronic structure of zigzag α-graphyne nanoribbon opens and oscillates with ribbon width and electric field magnitude. Also the band gap of armchair α-graphyne nanoribbon decreases in low electric field, but it has an oscillatory growth behavior for high strength of external electric field.

We study the electronic structure of armchair and zigzag α-graphyne nanoribbon in the presence of an external electric field.Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide