Electrical Properties of Sculpturenes

TL;DR

This paper explores the electronic properties of sculpturenes, novel nanostructures created by sculpting bilayer materials and allowing them to reconstruct, revealing their geometries, electronic states, and electrical behaviors.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of sculpturenes from various bilayer materials and analyzes their reconstructed geometries and electronic properties.

Findings

Reconstructed geometries of sculpturenes show complex topologies.

Electronic densities of states vary with shape and material.

Current-voltage relations indicate potential for electronic applications.

Abstract

We investigate the electronic properties of sculpturenes, formed by sculpting selected shapes from bilayer graphene, boron-nitride or graphene-boron-nitride hetero-bilayers and allowing the shapes to spontaneously reconstruct. The simplest sculpturenes are periodic nanotubes, containing lines of non-hexagonal rings. More complex sculpturenes formed from shapes with non-trivial topologies, connectivities and materials combinations may also be constructed. Results are presented for the reconstructed geometries, electronic densities of states and current-voltage relations of these new structures.