No Arabic abstract
Based on a tight-binding model and a recursive Greens function technique, spin-depentent ballistic transport through tinny graphene sheets (flakes) is studied. The main interest is focussed on: electrical conductivity, giant magnetoresistance (GMR) and shot noise. It is shown that when graphene flakes are sandwiched between two ferromagnetic electrodes, the resulting GMR coefficient may be quite significant. This statement holds true both for zigzag and armchair chiralities, as well as for different aspect (width/length) ratios. Remarkably, in absolute values the GMR of the armchair-edge graphene flakes is systematically greater than that corresponding to the zigzag-edge graphene flakes. This finding is attributed to the different degree of conduction channel mixing for the two chiralities in question. It is also shown that for big aspect ratio flakes, 3-dimensional end-contacted leads, very much like invasive contacts, result in non-universal behavior of both conductivity and Fano factor.
Spin-dependent coherent quantum transport through carbon nanotubes (CNT) is studied theoretically within a tight-binding model and the Greens function partitioning technique. End-contacted metal/nanotube/metal systems are modelled and next studied in the magnetic context, i.e. either with ferromagnetic electrodes or at external magnetic fields. The former case shows that quite a substantial giant magnetoresistance (GMR) effect occurs ($pm 20%$) for disorder-free CNTs. Anderson-disorder averaged GMR, in turn, is positive and reduced down to several percent in the vicinity of the charge neutrality point. At parallel magnetic fields, characteristic Aharonov-Bohm-type oscillations are revealed with pronounced features due to a combined effect of: length-to-perimeter ratio, unintentional electrode-induced doping, Zeeman splitting, and energy-level broadening. In particular, a CNT is predicted to lose its ability to serve as a magneto-electrical switch when its length and perimeter become comparable. In case of perpendicular geometry, there are conductance oscillations approaching asymptotically the upper theoretical limit to the conductance, $4 e^2/h$. Moreover in the ballistic transport regime, initially the conductance increases only slightly with the magnetic field or remains nearly constant because spin up- and spin down-contributions to the total magnetoresistance partially compensate each other.
We show that the manifestation of quantum interference in graphene is very different from that in conventional two-dimensional systems. Due to the chiral nature of charge carriers, it is sensitive not only to inelastic, phase-breaking scattering, but also to a number of elastic scattering processes. We study weak localization in different samples and at different carrier densities, including the Dirac region, and find the characteristic rates that determine it. We show how the shape and quality of graphene flakes affect the values of the elastic and inelastic rates and discuss their physical origin.
Wrinkling is a ubiquitous phenomenon in two-dimensional membranes. In particular, in the large-scale growth of graphene on metallic substrates, high densities of wrinkles are commonly observed. Despite their prevalence and potential impact on large-scale graphene electronics, relatively little is known about their structural morphology and electronic properties. Surveying the graphene landscape using atomic force microscopy, we found that wrinkles reach a certain maximum height before folding over. Calculations of the energetics explain the morphological transition, and indicate that the tall ripples are collapsed into narrow standing wrinkles by van der Waals forces, analogous to large-diameter nanotubes. Quantum transport calculations show that conductance through these collapsed wrinkle structures is limited mainly by a density-of-states bottleneck and by interlayer tunneling across the collapsed bilayer region. Also through systematic measurements across large numbers of devices with wide folded wrinkles, we find a distinct anisotropy in their electrical resistivity, consistent with our transport simulations. These results highlight the coupling between morphology and electronic properties, which has important practical implications for large-scale high-speed graphene electronics.
We calculate the temperature dependent conductivity of graphene in the presence of randomly distributed Coulomb impurity charges arising from the temperature dependent screening of the Coulomb disorder without any phonons. The purely electronic temperature dependence of our theory arises from two independent mechanisms: the explicit temperature dependence of the finite temperature dielectric function $epsilon(q,T)$ and the finite temperature energy averaging of the transport scattering time. We find that the calculated temperature dependent conductivity is non-monotonic, decreasing with temperature at low temperatures, and increasing at high temperatures. We provide a critical comparison with the corresponding physics in semiconductor-based parabolic band 2D electron gas systems.
Since the discovery of graphene -a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice - it was clear that this truly is a unique material system with an unprecedented combination of physical properties. Graphene is the thinnest membrane present in nature -just one atom thick- it is the strongest material, it is transparent and it is a very good conductor with room temperature charge mobilities larger than the typical mobilities found in silicon. The significance played by this new material system is even more apparent when considering that graphene is the thinnest member of a larger family: the few-layer graphene materials. Even though several physical properties are shared between graphene and its few-layers, recent theoretical and experimental advances demonstrate that each specific thickness of few-layer graphene is a material with unique physical properties.