Electronic Structures of Silicene Nanoribbons: Two-Edge-Chemistry Modification and First-Principles Study

In this paper, we investigate the structural and electronic properties of zigzag silicene nanoribbons (ZSiNRs) with edge-chemistry modified by H, F, OH, and O, using the ab initio density functional theory method and local spin-density approximation. Three kinds of spin polarized configurations are considered: nonspin polarization (NM), ferromagnetic spin coupling for all electrons (FM), ferromagnetic ordering along each edge, and antiparallel spin orientation between the two edges (AFM). The H, F, and OH groups modified 8-ZSiNRs have the AFM ground state. The directly edge oxidized (O(1)) ZSiNRs yield the same energy and band structure for NM, FM, and AFM configurations, owning to the same sp(2) hybridization. And replacing the Si atoms on the two edges with O atoms (O(2)) yields FM ground state. The edge-chemistry-modified ZSiNRs all exhibit metallic band structures. And the modifications introduce special edge state strongly localized at the Si atoms in the edge, except for the O(1) form. The modification of the zigzag edges of silicene nanoribbons is a key issue to apply the silicene into the field effect transistors (FETs) and gives more necessity to better understand the experimental findings.