Charge transport properties of boron/nitrogen binary doped graphene nanoribbons: An ab initio study

Opening a bandgap by forming graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) and tailoring their properties via doping is a promising direction to achieve graphene-based advanced electronic devices. Applying a first-principles computational approach combining density functional theory (DFT) and DFT-based non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF) calculation, we herein study the structural, electronic, and charge transport properties of boron-nitrogen binary edge doped GNRs and show that it can achieve novel doping effects that are absent for the single B or N doping. For the armchair GNRs, we find that the B-N edge co-doping almost perfectly recovers the conductance of pristine GNRs. For the zigzag GNRs, it is found to support spatially and energetically spin-polarized currents in the absence of magnetic electrodes or external gate fields: The spin-up (spin-down) currents along the B-N undoped edge and in the valence (conduction) band edge region. This may lead to a novel scheme of graphene band engineering and benefit the design of graphene-based spintronic devices.\\[4pt] This work was supported by the Basic Science Research Grant (No. 2012R1A1A2044793), Global Frontier Program (No. 2013-073298), and Nano-Material Technology Development Program (2012M3A7B4049888) of the National Research Foundation funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of Korea.