Bandgap Narrowing in Silicene Nanoribbons with Metal Edge Contacts

By employing atomistic quantum transport simulations we investigate the impact of metal edge contacts on the transport gap (E
TG
) of silicene nanoribbons (SiNR). Transmission and E
TG
are investigated for sub-5 nm-wide and sub-15 nm-long SiNRs for various metal-device interaction strengths. We find that metallization occurs in certain cases, especially in wider and shorter devices, which sets fundamental limits to device scaling of potential SiNRbased field effect transistors (FET). The findings are elaborated through analytical and numerical examples by discussing transmission and eigenvalue evolution with increasing metal-device interaction.