Magnetic Boron Nitride Nanoribbons with Tunable Electronic Properties

TL;DR

This paper uses first-principles calculations to demonstrate that zigzag boron nitride nanoribbons can host stable, tunable magnetic edge states that enable control over their electronic properties, including transitions between metallic, semiconducting, and half-metallic states.

Contribution

It provides the first theoretical evidence of room-temperature stable magnetic edge states in boron nitride nanoribbons and shows how external electric fields can tune their electronic behavior.

Findings

Magnetic edge states are thermally accessible at room temperature.

High spin states exhibit diverse electronic behaviors.

External electric fields can induce electronic phase transitions.

Abstract

We present theoretical evidence, based on total-energy first-principles calculations, of the existence of spin-polarized states well localized at and extended along the edges of bare zigzag boron nitride nanoribbons. Our calculations predict that all the magnetic configurations studied in this work are thermally accessible at room temperature and present an energy gap. In particular, we show that the high spin state, with a magnetic moment of 1 $\mu_B$ at each edge atom, presents a rich spectrum of electronic behaviors as it can be controlled by applying an external electric field in order to obtain metallic $\leftrightarrow$ semiconducting $\leftrightarrow$ half-metallic transitions.