Unusual Scaling Laws of the Band Gap and Optical Absorption of Phosphorene Nanoribbons

Abstract

We report the electronic structure and optical absorption spectra of monolayer black phosphorus (phosphorene) nanoribbons (PNRs) via first-principles simulations. The band gap of PNRs is strongly enhanced by quantum confinement. However, differently orientated PNRs exhibit distinct scaling laws for the band gap vs the ribbon width (w). The band gaps of armchair PNRs scale as 1/(w^2), while zigzag PNRs exhibit a 1/w behavior. These distinct scaling laws reflect a significant implication of the band dispersion of phosphorene: electrons and holes behave as classical particles along the zigzag direction, but resemble relativistic particles along the armchair direction. This unexpected merging of classical and relativistic properties in a single material may produce novel electrical and magnetotransport properties of few-layer black phosphorus and its ribbon structures. Finally, the respective PNRs host electrons and holes with markedly different effective masses and optical responses, which are suitable for a wide range of applications.

18 pages and 5 figures

References in corpus (14)

• Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films
• Quantum ESPRESSO: a modular and open-source software project for quantum simulations of materials
• The electronic properties of graphene
• Energy Band Gap Engineering of Graphene Nanoribbons
• Energy Gaps in Graphene Nanoribbons
• Half-Metallic Graphene Nanoribbons
• Giant Intrinsic Carrier Mobilities in Graphene and Its Bilayer
• Biased bilayer graphene: semiconductor with a gap tunable by electric field effect
• Room Temperature All Semiconducting sub-10nm Graphene Nanoribbon Field-Effect Transistors
• Strain-Engineering Anisotropic Electrical Conductance of Phosphorene and Few-Layer Black Phosphorus
• Non-adiabatic Kohn-anomaly in a doped graphene monolayer
• Energy Gaps and Stark Effect in Boron Nitride Nanoribbons
• Effect of edge roughness in graphene nanoribbon transistors
• MoS2 Nanoribbon Transistors: Transition from Depletion-mode to Enhancement-mode by Channel Width Trimming

Cited by in corpus (16)

• The Renaissance of Black Phosphorus
• Access and in situ Growth of Phosphorene-Precursor Black Phosphorus
• Tuning of the electronic and optical properties of single layer black phosphorus by strain
• Phosphorene nanoribbon as a promising candidate for thermoelectric applications
• Electrically Tunable Quasi-Flat Bands, Conductance and Field Effect Transistor in Phosphorene
• Hinge-like structure induced unusual properties of black phosphorus and new strategies to improve the thermoelectric performance
• Edge effects on the electronic properties of phosphorene nanoribbons
• Electrons and holes in phosphorene
• Lattice Vibrational Modes and Raman Scattering Spectra of Strained Phosphorene
• Anisotropic Ripple Deformation in Phosphorene
• Topological Protected Dirac Cones in Compressed Bulk Black Phosphorus
• Tunable Magnetic Semiconductor Behavior Driven by Half-Filled One Dimensional Band in Zigzag Phosphorene Nanoribbons
• A theoretical study of blue phosphorene nanoribbons based on first-principles calculations
• Chemical scissors cut phosphorene nanostructures and their novel electronic properties
• Phosphorene: Fabrication, Properties and Applications
• Controlling quantum spin Hall state via strain in various stacking bilayer phosphorene