The effect of negative differential resistance in black phosphorene nanoribbons with different passivated atoms

Based on the first-principles calculations and the non-equilibrium Green's function method, we theoretically investigate the transport property of zigzag phosphorene nanoribbons (ZPNRs) passivated with different atoms, such as N, C, N, O, H. We found that the O-passivated ZPNR is the most stable structure. ZPNRs can be semiconductor and metallic phases, depending sensitively on the passivated atoms at the edges of the ZPNRs. We find that the system can be a metal/semiconductor junction, displaying a pronounced negative differential resistance with a large peak-to-valley under a bias. This feature provides us a new way to amplify and convert DC signal to AC output, construct phosphorene-based oscillator and amplifier.