Electronic structures and transport properties of low-dimensional GaN nanoderivatives: A first-principles study

The current superposition law like a parallel circuit has been explored for current and transmission of the system constructed by the bilayer GaN nanodevices (Z6) are approximately twice as large as that constructed by the corresponding monolayer GaN nanodevices (z6) at the given voltage. And this phenomena can be explained by the local density of states (LDOS) of that bilayer GaN structures provide twice transport routes than the corresponding monolayer ones. [Display omitted] •GaN bilayer nanosheets are wide and indirect band gap semiconductors.•The bilayer GaN nanoribbon-based devices present current superposition law to compare with their respective single-layer GaN model devices.•Armchair edged GaN nanoribbon-based devices show width effect. Low-dimensional gallium nitride (GaN) nanoderivatives have recently attracted great attention, and they are one of the most attractive fields for future development of microelectronic devices. Here, the electronic structures and transport properties of GaN nanoderivatives were investigated by density functional theory. For two-dimensional bilayer GaN nanosheets, we found that AA-NN(GaGa) is the most stable structure among the five GaN stacking structures, and the stacking arrangement does not change the wide and indirect band gap of these two-dimensional bilayer stacked nanosheets. The transport properties of one-dimensional GaN nanoribbons were also investigated. The current in the bilayer GaN nanodevices was about twice that in the monolayer GaN nanodevices regardless of the nanoribbon morphology. That is, the bilayer GaN nanodevices show the current superposition law, like a parallel circuit, compared with their respective monolayer GaN model devices. The one-dimensional armchair boundary GaN nanoribbon devices showed the width effect because the width had a great effect on the current–voltage (I-V) curve and transport characteristics, but the one-dimensional zigzag boundary GaN nanoribbon devices did not and the I-V characteristic curves for different nanoribbon widths were similar. These extraordinary electronic structures indicate that GaN is promising for application in microelectronic devices.