First principles study on the electronic structure and effect of vanadium doping of BN nanowires

The electronic structure and effect of vanadium doping of BN nanowires are studied by first principles calculations. For the pure nanowires, it can be found that B atoms move inwards whereas N atoms move outwards, and BN nanowires have a constant band gap about 4.08 eV with larger diameter. The above-mentioned features are in agreement with those of BN nanotubes. We also find that the pure nanowires become more and more stable with increasing diameter. For V-doped BN nanowires, the V atoms move outwards, and the total energies of pair V-doped BN nanowires indicate that the ferromagnetic ground state, and the electronic structures show half-metallicity. The majority of total spin magnetic moments originate from V atoms, and B atoms which near dopant have a little contribution, while N atoms provide a little reverse magnetic moment. This study may be useful in spintronics and nanomagnets.