Controlling the Bandgap of Boron Nitride Nanotubes with Carbon Doping

This study explores the effects of doping by carbon (C) atoms on electronic properties of (10,10) and (16,0) boron nitride (BN) nanotubes (NTs). We exploit the random tight-binding model with Green’s function technique and coherent potential approximation to show that the C dopant causes a decrease in the bandgap of the BN NTs, and their matching Van Hove singularities (VHS) in the density of states (DOS) are broadened. When the impurity concentration is large enough, the form of the DOS of the BN NTs becomes similar to that of metallic (10,10) and semiconducting (16,0) C NTs and their VHS get sharpened. This work might provide opportunities for creating new optoelectronic devices based on BN honeycomb nanosystems.