Infrared to near-ultraviolet optical response for zigzag-edge silicene nanoribbons under the irradiation of an external electromagnetic field

We investigate theoretically the width-dependent electronic structure and optical spectrum for intrinsic zigzag-edge silicene nanoribbons with N silicon atoms of the A and B sublattice (N-ZSiNRs) under the irradiation of an external electromagnetic field at low temperatures. Based on the method of the tight-binding approximation, we have derived a width-dependent dispersion relation and wave function for N-ZSiNRs under the hard-wall boundary condition. By way of the dipole-transition theorem for semiconductors, both the 8- and 16-ZSiNRs have been observed to exhibit broad values (0.30–3.20 eV) of optical conductivity, dielectric function and electron energy loss spectrum in the range of infrared to near-ultraviolet. The optical spectra for 8- and 16-ZSiNRs have been manifested to be transitions between the valence and conduction bands with the same subband indices, as well as the resonances between the edge state and bulk state subbands, while the optical transitions among the different indexed bulk subbands should be forbidden owing to the non-conserved momentum. The obtained results are believed to be of importance in exploring new effects and optoelectronic applications of the silicene-based electron devices.