[en] Boron nitride is a promising material for nanotechnology applications due to its two-dimensional
graphene-like, insulating, and highly-resistant structure. Recently it has received a lot of attention as a
substrate to grow and isolate graphene as well as for its intrinsic UV lasing response. Similar to carbon,
one-dimensional boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) have been theoretically predicted and later synthesised.
Here we use first principles simulations to unambiguously demonstrate that i) BN nanotubes inherit the
highly efficient UV luminescence of hexagonal BN; ii) the application of an external perpendicular field
closes the electronic gap keeping the UV lasing with lower yield; iii) defects in BNNTS are responsible for
tunable light emission from the UV to the visible controlled by a transverse electric field (TEF). Our present
findings pave the road towards optoelectronic applications of BN-nanotube-based devices that are simple to
implement because they do not require any special doping or complex growth.
Disciplines :
Physics
Author, co-author :
Attaccalite, Claudio; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - CNRS > Institut NEEL
Wirtz, Ludger ; Institute for Electronics, Microelectronics, and Nanotechnology (IEMN), CNRS UMR 8520, Dept. ISEN ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Science, Technology and Communication (FSTC) > Physics and Materials Science Research Unit
Marini, Andrea; Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy > Istituto di Struttura della Materia (ISM)
Rubio, Angel; Nano-Bio Spectroscopy Group and ETSF Scientific Development Centre, Departamento de Fisica de Materiales, Centro de Fısica de Materiales CSIC-UPV/ EHU-MPC and DIPC, Universidad del Paıs Vasco UPV/EHU, Spain ; Fritz Haber Institut der Max Planck Gesellschaft, Germany
Language :
English
Title :
Efficient Gate-tunable light-emitting device made of defective boron nitride nanotubes: from ultraviolet to the visible