Hydrogenated amorphous boron nitride: A first principles study

The influence of hydrogenation on the atomic structure and electronic properties of amorphous boron nitride (alpha-BN) is investigated by using an ab-initio molecular dynamics technique. The structural evaluation of alpha-BN and the hydrogenated (alpha-BN:H) models with four different hydrogen concentrations reveals that although their short-range order is mainly similar to each other, hydrogenation yields some noticeable amendments on the local structure of alpha-BN. Hydrogenation suppresses the formation of twofold coordinated chain-like structures and tetragonal-like rings and leads to more sp(2) and even sp(3) hybridizations. It is also observed that the formation of N-H bonding is more favorable than that of the B-H bonding in the alpha-BN:H configurations. Furthermore hydrogenation is found to have an insignificant impact on the electronic structure of alpha-BN.