Magnetic and electronic properties of α-graphyne nanoribbons

Based on the first-principles calculations, we investigate the magnetic and electronic properties of a-graphyne nanoribbons (NRs). We show that all the armchair a-graphyne NRs are nonmagnetic semiconductors with band gaps as a function of ribbon widths. The zigzag a-graphyne NRs are found to have magnetic semiconducting ground state with ferromagnetic ordering at each edge and opposite spin orientation between the two edges. Under the application of transverse electric field, we further predict the existence of half-metallicity in the zigzag NRs which strongly depends on the width of the ribbon. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4730325]