Magnetic field induced metal-insulator transition in a Kagome Nanoribbon

TL;DR

This study explores how a perpendicular magnetic field can induce a metal-insulator transition in a kagome nanoribbon, using tight-binding models and Green's function techniques, with implications for low-dimensional electronic switches.

Contribution

It provides the first analytical and numerical investigation of magnetic field-induced metal-insulator transition in kagome nanoribbons.

Findings

Magnetic field can induce a metal-insulator transition at specific Fermi energies.

The transmission spectra and density of states are significantly affected by the magnetic field.

Results suggest potential for designing low-dimensional electronic switching devices.

Abstract

In the present work we investigate two-terminal electron transport through a finite width kagome lattice nanoribbon in presence of a perpendicular magnetic field. We employ a simple tight-binding (T-B) Hamiltonian to describe the system and obtain the transmission properties by using Green's function technique within the framework of Landauer-B\"{u}ttiker formalism. After presenting an analytical description of energy dispersion relation of a kagome nanoribbon in presence of the magnetic field, we investigate numerically the transmittance spectra together with the density of states and current-voltage characteristics. It is shown that for a specific value of the Fermi energy the kagome network can exhibit a magnetic field induced metal-insulator transition which is the central investigation of this communication. Our analysis may be inspiring in designing low-dimensional switching devices.