Phosphorene is a graphene-like material with an intermediate band gap, in contrast to zero-gap graphene and large-gap dichalcogenides or hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), which makes it more suitable for nanoelectronic devices. However, inducing band-gap modulation in freestanding phosphorene nanoribbons (PNRs) is problematic, as high in-plane electric fields are necessary to close the gap. We perform here a detailed investigation concerning the substrate influence on the electric-field control exerted by an external gate, using the density functional theory–non-equilibrium Green’s functions (DFT-NEGF) framework. It is established that the interaction with a hexagonal boron nitride supporting layer significantly enhances the gap modulation. Furthermore, we address the issue of contacting the PNRs, by using conducting graphene nanoribbons embedded in the support hBN layer. Within this setup, a measurable spin polarization is achieved owing to the anti-ferromagnetic coupling between the edges of the graphene nanoribbons.

Interconnecting nanodevices with the aim of assembling quantum computing architectures is one of the current outstanding challenges. At the nanoscale, the quantum interconnects become comparable in complexity with the active devices and should be treated on equal footing. In addition, they can play an active role in the switching properties. Here, we investigate the charge localization in neuromorphic bi-dimensional systems, which serve as quantum interconnects (QIs) between quantum dot registers. We define a device structure where, by manipulating the charging of a floating gate array, one defines the QI potential map, which can host a few interacting electrons. The ground state charge density may be extracted by measuring the tunneling current perpendicular to the device surface, yielding a convoluted image of the electron distribution. Using image-to-image translation methods, we achieve the mapping of the charge density from the confinement potential, as well as by deconvoluting the tunneling current map, which can be obtained by a direct measurement. Thus, we provide a proof-of-concept for a reconfigurable device, which can be used to design quantum many-electron devices.