Electronic properties of boron and nitrogen doped graphene nanoribbons and its application for graphene electronics

On the basis of density functional theory calculations, we have systematically investigated the electronic properties of armchair-edge graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) doped with boron (B) and nitrogen (N) atoms. B (N) atoms could effectively introduce holes (electrons) to GNRs and the system exhibits p- (n-) type semiconducting behavior after B (N) doping. According to the electronic structure calculations, Z-shape GNR-based field effect transistors (FETs) is constructed by selective doping with B or N atoms. Using first-principles quantum transport calculations, we demonstrate that the B-doped p-type GNR-FETs can exhibit high levels of performance, with high ON/OFF ratios and low subthreshold swing. Furthermore, the performance parameters of GNR-FETs could be controlled by the p-type semiconducting channel length. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.