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

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that edge-doped boron nitride nanoribbons can be transformed into half-metals or spin-gapless semiconductors through mechanical strain, enabling programmable control of their electronic properties for spintronics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method of using strain engineering combined with edge doping to control electronic phases in 2D materials.

Findings

Strain acts as an on/off switch for half-metal and spin-gapless states.

Edge doping with carbon enables programmable electronic properties.

The approach offers active control over 2D material electronic phases.

Abstract

The search for half-metals and spin-gapless semiconductors has attracted extensive attention in material design for spintronics. Existing progress in such a search often requires peculiar atomistic lattice configuration and also lacks active control of the resulting electronic properties. Here we reveal that a boron-nitride nanoribbon with a carbon-doped edge can be made a half-metal or a spin-gapless semiconductor in a programmable fashion. The mechanical strain serves as the on/off switches for functions of half-metal and spin-gapless semiconductor to occur. Our findings shed light on how the edge doping combined with strain engineering can affect electronic properties of two-dimensional materials