First-principle investigations of negative differential resistance in zigzag boron nitride nanoribbons

This work investigates the structural stability, electronic and transport properties of zigzag boron nitride nanoribbons (ZBNNRs) with hydrogenation/fluorination by using density functional theory (DFT) along with non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF) approach. The study reveals that ZBNNRs exhibit metallic to semiconducting transition via selected edge fluorination. Interestingly, edge fluorinated ZBNNRs demonstrate high structural stability due to the higher electronegativity of fluorine. It is also revealed that negative differential resistance (NDR) has also been observed for edge fluorinated two terminal devices with enormously high peak to valley current ratio (PVCR) of the order of 10¹¹. We have also investigated the gate controllable current–voltage (I–V) characteristics of three terminal ZBNNRs field effect transistor (FET). The selective structures exhibit excellent gate controllability which can tune the observed PVCR. Our findings indicate the potential of fluorinated ZBNNRs towards upcoming ultra fast switches, rectifiers and oscillators etc.