A Electron transport study on ultrathin armchair graphene nanoribbone

Abstract

Using first-principles quantum transport simulations, this work examines changes in the total electronic currents within the plane of short ultrathin graphene nanoribbon with armchair edges (AGNR). A 5-AGNR-M (M = 4,12,20 and 28 zigzag line) junction was simulated and its transmission were analyzed. The I-V curves under external bias exhibit remarkable semiconducting characteristics. It further demonstrates that the length of the junction also showed significant effects in the determination of the semiconducting nature. More importantly, a significant increasing by double in bias voltage threshold of I–V characteristics have been observed for the positively charged nanoribbon in the family of 5-AGNRs.

Keywords

• Electron transport
• ultrathin armchair graphene
• nanoribbone
• tight-binding approximation