Electromechanical coupling effect on electronic properties of double-walled boron nitride nanotubes

• Published in: Acta mechanica Sinica 2012-12, Vol.28 (6), p.1532-1538
• Main Authors: Zhang, Zhu-Hua, Guo, Wan-Lin, Yakobson, Boris I.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Boron nitride; Classical and Continuum Physics; Computational Intelligence; Electric fields; Engineering; Engineering Fluid Dynamics; Joining; Modulation; Nanoelectronics; Nanotubes; Reduction; Research Paper; Strain; Theoretical and Applied Mechanics; 双壁; 径向应变; 机电耦合效应; 横向电场; 氮化硼纳米管; 电子特性; 纳米电子学; 调谐性能
• ISSN: 0567-7718; 1614-3116
• DOI: 10.1007/s10409-012-0163-y

We report on a first-principles study of a novel band modulation in zigzag double-walled boron nitride nan- otubes （DBNNTs） by applying radial strain and coupled ex- ternal electric field. We show that the band alignment be- tween the inner and outer walls of the DBNNTs can be tuned from type I to type II with increasing radial strain, accompa- nied with a direct to indirect band gap transition and a sub- stantial gap reduction. The band gap can be further signifi- cantly reduced by applying a transverse electric field. The coupling of electric field with the radial strain makes the field-induced gap reduction being anisotropic and more re- markable than that in undeformed DBNNTs. In particular, the gap variation induced by electric field perpendicular to the radial strain is the most remarkable among all the modu-lations. These tunable properties by electromechanical cou- pling in DBNNTs will greatly enrich their versatile applica- tions in future nanoelectronics.