Electromechanical properties of alternating AlN and SiC nanoribbon sheets

The goal of this manuscript is to report on the electromechanical properties of alternating AlN and SiC nanoribbon sheets. Motivated by the fact that, at low temperatures, aluminum nitride and silicon carbide form freestanding monolayers, we employed first-principle calculations in an effort to elucidate the mechanical and electronic properties of domain boundaries separating the two distinct ribbon phases. The results suggest opposite deformation tendencies for two types of monolayer superlattices: negative and positive boundary stresses are identified for armchair and zigzag boundaries, respectively. In addition, armchair monolayers are semiconductors with wide band gaps. However, we found that zigzag monolayers are half metallic, with ferromagnetic spin ordering along individual boundaries and antiferromagnetic spin orientation among neighboring boundaries.