Defect engineering on the electronic and transport properties of one-dimensional armchair phosphorene nanoribbons

We investigate the electronic and transport properties of one-dimensional armchair phosphorene nanoribbons (APNRs) containing atomic vacancies with different distributions and concentrations using ab initio density functional calculations. It is found that the atomic vacancies are easier to form and detain at the edge region rather than a random distribution through analyzing formation energy and diffusion barrier. The highly local defect states are generated at the vicinity of the Fermi level, and emerge a deep-to-shallow transformation as the width increases after introducing vacancies in APNRs. Moreover, the electrical transport of APNRs with vacancies is enhanced compared to that of the perfect counterparts. Our results provide a theoretical guidance for the further research and applications of PNRs through defect engineering.