Strain-induced programmable half-metal and spin-gapless semiconductor in an edge-doped boron nitride nanoribbon

摘要

The search for half-metals and spin-gapless semiconductors has attractedextensive attention in material design for spintronics. Existing progress insuch a search often requires peculiar atomistic lattice configuration and alsolacks active control of the resulting electronic properties. Here we revealthat a boron-nitride nanoribbon with a carbon-doped edge can be made ahalf-metal or a spin-gapless semiconductor in a programmable fashion. Themechanical strain serves as the on/off switches for functions of half-metal andspin-gapless semiconductor to occur. Our findings shed light on how the edgedoping combined with strain engineering can affect electronic properties oftwo-dimensional materials