Tunable electronic and transport properties for ultranarrow armchair-edge silicene nanoribbons under spin–orbit coupling and perpendicular electric field

• The energy gaps and the conductance for ASiNRs can be effectively modulated by effective spin–orbit coupling λSOλSO and the potential energy V0V0.
• An energy gap appears for 8-ASiNR in the presence of V0V0.
• The conductance plateaus for three systems can survive for small and moderate Anderson disorder strengths.

The electronic and transport properties for armchair-edge silicene nanoribbons (ASiNR) with effective spin–orbit coupling and potential energy were investigated by using the non-equilibrium Green's function method. The energy gaps and the conductance for ASiNRs can be effectively modulated by effective spin–orbit coupling λSOλSO and the potential energy V0V0. With increasing λSOλSO, the energy gap for 6-ASiNR and 7-ASiNR decreases, while it remains zero for metallic 8-ASiNR. Interestingly, an energy gap appears for 8-ASiNR in presence of V0V0, which results in the appearance of a conductance gap for 8-ASiNR system. Additionally, the dependence of conductance on Anderson disorder strength has been studied.