The External Electric Field-Induced Tunability of the Schottky Barrier Height in Graphene/AlN Interface: A Study by First-Principles

Graphene-based van der Waals (vdW) heterojunction plays an important role in next-generation optoelectronics, nanoelectronics, and spintronics devices. The tunability of the Schottky barrier height (SBH) is beneficial for improving device performance, especially for the contact resistance. Herein, we investigated the electronic structure and interfacial characteristics of the graphene/AlN interface based on density functional theory. The results show that the intrinsic electronic properties of graphene changed slightly after contact. In contrast, the valence band maximum of AlN changed significantly due to the hybridization of Cp and Np orbital electrons. The Bader charge analysis showed that the electrons would transfer from AlN to graphene, implying that graphene would induce acceptor states. Additionally, the Schottky contact nature can be effectively tuned by the external electric field, and it will be tuned from the p-type into n-type once the electric field is larger than about 0.5 V/Å. Furthermore, the optical absorption of graphene/AlN is enhanced after contact. Our findings imply that the SBH is controllable, which is highly desirable in nano-electronic devices.