Electronic and magnetic properties of Cd-doped zigzag AlN nanoribbons from first principles

The effect of Cd impurity on the electronic structure and magnetic properties of hydrogen-terminated AlN nanoribbons with zigzag edges (ZAlNNRs) was investigate using the band structure results obtained through the full potential linearized augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) method within the density functional theory (DFT). The exchange correlation potential was treated by the generalized gradient approximation within the Perdew scheme. The calculated results show that the H-terminated zigzag AlN nanoribbon is semiconducting and nonmagnetic material with a direct band gap of about 2.78 eV, while the Cd-doped H-terminated ZAlNNR structures show complete (100 %) spin polarization very close to the Fermi level, which will result in spin-anisotropic transport. The charge transport is totally dominated by Cd spin down electrons in the H-terminated ZAlNNR. These results suggest potential applications for the development of using the AlN nanoribbons in nanoelectronics and magnetoelectronic devices as a base.