Tunable direct-indirect band gaps of ZrSe₂ nanoribbons

The atomic and electronic structures of armchair and zigzag ZrSe₂ nanoribbons have been investigated systematically. Both the armchair and zigzag ZrSe₂ nanoribbons are nonmagnetic semiconductors, while their bandgaps show quite different behaviors depending on the ribbon width. We find that all the zigzag ribbons possess direct energy gaps, which smoothly decline with the increasing ribbon width. On the other hand, energy gaps for the armchair ribbons change from direct gaps to indirect ones as the ribbon width increases and exhibit a width-dependent oscillation behavior. Moreover, the semiconducting behaviors and the bandgap types are robust, and they remain unchanged in bilayer and multilayer thin films with inter-layer interactions. These findings indicate that ZrSe₂ nanoribbons are promising candidate materials for applications in nanoelectronic devices.