Charge transport in pn and npn junctions of silicene

Abstract

We investigate charge transport of pn and npn junctions made from silicene, Si analogue of graphene. The conductance shows the distinct gate-voltage dependences peculiar to the topological and non-topological phases, where the topological phase transition is caused by external electric field. Namely, the conductance is suppressed in the np regime when the both sides are topological, while in the nn regime when one side is topological and the other side is non-topological. Furthermore, we find that the conductance is almost quantized to be 0, 1 and 2. Our findings will open a new way to nanoelectronics based on silicene.