No Arabic abstract
In this work we address the effects on the conductance of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) at which organic molecules are side-attached on the ribbon ends. For simplicity, only armchair (AGNRs) and zigzag (ZGNRs) nanoribbons are considered and quasi one-dimensional molecules, such as linear poly-aromatic hydrocarbon (LPHC) and poly(para-phenylene), are chosen. The conductance of the GNRs exhibit a particular behavior as a function of the length of the organic molecules: the energy spectrum of the quasi one-dimensional system is clearly reflected in the conductance curves of the GNRs. The results suggest that GNRs can be used as an spectrograph-sensor device. An even-odd parity effect, as a function of the length of the attached molecules, can be observed in the conductance of these system. The nanostructures are described using a single-band tight binding Hamiltonian and the electronic conductance and the density of states of the systems are calculated within the Greens function formalism based on real-space renormalization techniques.
We report an electron transport study of lithographically fabricated graphene nanoribbons of various widths and lengths at different temperatures. At the charge neutrality point, a length-independent transport gap forms whose size is inversely proportional to the width. In this gap, electron is localized, and charge transport exhibits a transition between simple thermally activated behavior at higher temperatures and a variable range hopping at lower temperatures. By varying the geometric capacitance through the addition of top gates, we find that charging effects constitute a significant portion of the activation energy.
One of the new discoveries in quantum biology is the role of Environment Assisted Quantum Transport (ENAQT) in excitonic transport processes. In disordered quantum systems transport is most efficient when the environment just destroys quantum interferences responsible for localization, but the coupling does not drive the system to fully classical thermal diffusion yet. This poised realm between the pure quantum and the semi-classical domains has not been considered in other biological transport processes, such as charge transport through organic molecules. Binding in receptor-ligand complexes is assumed to be static as electrons are assumed to be not able to cross the ligand molecule. We show that ENAQT makes cross ligand transport possible and efficient between certain atoms opening the way for the reorganization of the charge distribution on the receptor when the ligand molecule docks. This new effect can potentially change our understanding how receptors work. We demonstrate room temperature ENAQT on the caffeine molecule.
We present measurements on side gated graphene constrictions of different geometries. We characterize the transport gap by its width in back gate voltage and compare this to an analysis based on Coulomb blockade measurements of localized states. We study the effect of an applied side gate voltage on the transport gap and show that high side gate voltages lift the suppression of the conductance. Finally we study the effect of an applied magnetic field and demonstrate the presence of edge states in the constriction.
We investigate the effects of homogeneous and inhomogeneous deformations and edge disorder on the conductance of gated graphene nanoribbons. Under increasing homogeneous strain the conductance of such devices initially decreases before it acquires a resonance structure, and finally becomes completely suppressed at larger strain. Edge disorder induces mode mixing in the contact regions, which can restore the conductance to its ballistic value. The valley-antisymmetric pseudo-magnetic field induced by inhomogeneous deformations leads to the formation of additional resonance states, which either originate from the coupling into Fabry-Perot states that extend through the system, or from the formation of states that are localized near the contacts, where the pseudo-magnetic field is largest. In particular, the n=0 pseudo-Landau level manifests itself via two groups of conductance resonances close to the charge neutrality point.
In graphene nanoribbons (GNRs), the lateral confinement of charge carriers opens a band gap, the key feature to enable novel graphene-based electronics. Successful synthesis of GNRs has triggered efforts to realize field-effect transistors (FETs) based on single ribbons. Despite great progress, reliable and reproducible fabrication of single-ribbon FETs is still a challenge that impedes applications and the understanding of the charge transport. Here, we present reproducible fabrication of armchair GNR-FETs based on a network of nanoribbons and analyze the charge transport mechanism using nine-atom wide and, in particular, five-atom-wide GNRs with unprecedented conductivity. We show formation of reliable Ohmic contacts and a yield of functional FETs close to unity by lamination of GNRs on the electrodes. Modeling the charge carrier transport in the networks reveals that this process is governed by inter-ribbon hopping mediated by nuclear tunneling, with a hopping length comparable to the physical length of the GNRs. Furthermore, we demonstrate that nuclear tunneling is a general charge transport characteristic of the GNR networks by using two different GNRs. Overcoming the challenge of low-yield single-ribbon transistors by the networks and identifying the corresponding charge transport mechanism puts GNR-based electronics in a new perspective.