First-Principles Investigations of Al/P Co-doping Effect on Disconnected Armchair Silicene Nanoribbon for Switching Device Applications

The structural, electronic, and quantum transport properties of Al/P co-doped disconnected armchair silicene nanoribbons (ASiNRs) with Al and P atoms are explored using first-principles calculations. The structural properties reveal that the co-doping with Al and P in disconnected nanoribbons is structurally stable. The current findings show that the electronic and transport characteristics are greatly influenced by doping position. Interestingly, the transport characteristics of pristine disconnected ASiNR based device are found to be similar to pristine ASiNR device. Here, it is also worth mentioning that the co-doped disconnected two-probe ASiNR devices show remarkable nonlinear current-voltage characteristics, this pledges for their potential employment as rectifiers, oscillators, etc. For co-doped disconnected ASiNRs devices, the computed rectification ratio (RR) and reverse rectification ratio (RRR) are 86.49 and 36, respectively. The intriguing rectifying mechanism can be elucidated by the localized and delocalized frontier orbitals, as well as the modulation of the transmission spectra with the supply voltage. The observed RR suggests that the co-doped disconnected ASiNRs could be used in futuristic ultra low power nanoscale nano-switching devices.