We study the quantization of Dirac fermions in lithographically defined graphene nanoconstrictions. We observe quantized conductance in single nanoconstrictions fabricated on top of a thin hexamethyldisilazane layer over a Si/SiO_2 wafer. This nanofabrication method allows us to obtain well defined edges in the nanoconstrictions, thus reducing the effects of edge roughness on the conductance. We prove the occurrence of ballistic transport and identify several size quantization plateaus in the conductance at low temperature. Experimental data and numerical simulations show good agreement, demonstrating that the smoothing of the plateaus is not related to edge roughness but to quantum interference effects.
We have developed the combination of an etching and deposition technique that enables the fabrication of locally gated graphene nanostructures of arbitrary design. Employing this method, we have fabricated graphene nanoconstrictions with local tunable transmission and characterized their electronic properties. An order of magnitude enhanced gate efficiency is achieved adopting the local gate geometry with thin dielectric gate oxide. A complete turn off of the device is demonstrated as a function of the local gate voltage. Such strong suppression of device conductance was found to be due to both quantum confinement and Coulomb blockade effects in the constricted graphene nanostructures.
We present Coulomb blockade measurements in a graphene double dot system. The coupling of the dots to the leads and between the dots can be tuned by graphene in-plane gates. The coupling is a non-monotonic function of the gate voltage. Using a purely capacitive model, we extract all relevant energy scales of the double dot system.
We report transport measurements through graphene on SrTiO3 substrates as a function of magnetic field B, carrier density n, and temperature T. The large dielectric constant of SrTiO3 screens very effectively long-range electron-electron interactions and potential fluctuations, making Dirac electrons in graphene virtually non-interacting. The absence of interactions results in a unexpected behavior of the longitudinal resistance in the N=0 Landau level, and in a large suppression of the transport gap in nano-ribbons. The bulk transport properties of graphene at B=0T, on the contrary, are completely unaffected by the substrate dielectric constant.
The influence of nanostructuring and quantum confinement on the thermoelectric properties of materials has been extensively studied. While this has made possible multiple breakthroughs in the achievable figure of merit, classical confinement, and its effect on the local Seebeck coefficient has mostly been neglected, as has the Peltier effect in general due to the complexity of measuring small temperature gradients locally. Here we report that reducing the width of a graphene channel to 100 nm changes the Seebeck coefficient by orders of magnitude. Using a scanning thermal microscope allows us to probe the local temperature of electrically contacted graphene two-terminal devices or to locally heat the sample. We show that constrictions in mono- and bilayer graphene facilitate a spatially correlated gradient in the Seebeck and Peltier coefficient, as evidenced by the pronounced thermovoltage $V_{th}$ and heating/cooling response $Delta T_{Peltier}$, respectively. This geometry dependent effect, which has not been reported previously in 2D materials, has important implications for measurements of patterned nanostructures in graphene and points to novel solutions for effective thermal management in electronic graphene devices or concepts for single material thermocouples.
Electronic current densities can reach extreme values in highly conducting nanostructures where constrictions limit current. For bias voltages on the 1 volt scale, the highly non-equilibrium situation can influence the electronic density between atoms, leading to significant inter-atomic forces. An easy interpretation of the non-equilibrium forces is currently not available. In this work, we present an ab-initio study based on density functional theory of bias-induced atomic forces in gated graphene nanoconstrictions consisting of junctions between graphene electrodes and graphene nano-ribbons in the presence of current. We find that current-induced bond-forces and bond-charges are correlated, while bond-forces are not simply correlated to bond-currents. We discuss, in particular, how the forces are related to induced charges and the electrostatic potential profile (voltage drop) across the junctions. For long current-carrying junctions we may separate the junction into a part with a voltage drop, and a part without voltage drop. The latter situation can be compared to a nano-ribbon in the presence of current using an ideal ballistic velocity-dependent occupation function. This shows how the combination of voltage drop and current give rise to the strongest current-induced forces in nanostructures.
V. Clerico
,J. A. Delgado-Notario
,M. Saiz-Bretin
.
(2018)
.
"Quantized electron transport through graphene nanoconstrictions"
.
Francisco Dominguez-Adame
هل ترغب بارسال اشعارات عن اخر التحديثات في شمرا-اكاديميا