Graphene has been proposed as a promising material for future nanoelectronics because of its unique electronic properties. Understanding the scaling behavior of this new nanomaterial under common experimental conditions is of critical importance for
developing graphene-based nanoscale devices. We present a comprehensive experimental and theoretical study on the influence of edge disorder and bulk disorder on the minimum conductivity of graphene ribbons. For the first time, we discovered a strong non-monotonic size scaling behavior featuring a peak and saturation minimum conductivity. Through extensive numerical simulations and analysis, we are able to attribute these features to the amount of edge and bulk disorder in graphene devices. This study elucidates the quantum transport mechanisms in realistic experimental graphene systems, which can be used as a guideline for designing graphene-based nanoscale devices with improved performance.
With the motivation of improving the performance and reliability of aggressively scaled nano-patterned graphene field-effect transistors, we present the first systematic experimental study on charge and current distribution in multilayer graphene fie
ld-effect transistors. We find a very particular thickness dependence for Ion, Ioff, and the Ion/Ioff ratio, and propose a resistor network model including screening and interlayer coupling to explain the experimental findings. In particular, our model does not invoke modification of the linear energy-band structure of graphene for the multilayer case. Noise reduction in nano-scale few-layer graphene transistors is experimentally demonstrated and can be understood within this model as well.
