Structural, electronic, and transport properties of silicane nanoribbons

Silicane ribbons do not suffer from aromatic dependence of the band gap making them a more promising candidate for near-term nanoelectronic application compared to armchair graphene nanoribbons. The structural, electronic, and transport properties of free-standing sp³-hybridized armchair- and zigzag-edge silicane nanoribbons have been investigated using ab initio and nonlocal empirical pseudopotential calculations. Under ambient conditions, two-dimensional silicane sheets will spontaneously break into stable one-dimensional ribbons similar to density functional theory studies of graphene ribbons. The calculated low-field electron mobility and ballistic conductance show a strong edge dependence, due to differences in the effective mass and momentum relaxation rates along the two transport directions. The mobility in zigzag-edge ribbons is found to be approximately twenty times higher than in armchair-edge ribbons.