Tuning of zero energy states in quantum dots of Silicene and bilayer graphene by electric field

•Density of states in Silicene and bilayer graphene quantum dots (QD) was calculated.•Fine structure of edge-localized zero energy states ZES in electric field was found.•Field-induced gap is shown to be formed in ZES.•Details of the gap dynamics depend on the shape of QD: hexagonal vs triangular.•These effects can be useful for engineering of field-effect nanoscale QD devices.

Electronic properties of triangular and hexagonal nano-scale quantum dots (QDs) of Silicene and bilayer graphene are studied. It is shown that the low-energy edge-localized electronic states, existing within the size-quantized gap are easily tunable by electric field. The appearance and field evolution of the electronic gap in these zero energy states (ZES) is shown to be very sensitive to QD geometry that permits to design the field-effect scalable QD devices with electronic properties on-demand.