Edge disorder induced Anderson localization and conduction gap in graphene nanoribbons

TL;DR

This paper investigates how edge disorder in graphene nanoribbons causes Anderson localization, leading to a conduction gap and uniform conductance properties regardless of edge geometry, highlighting the impact of disorder on electronic transport.

Contribution

It demonstrates that modest edge disorder induces a conduction gap and Anderson localization in graphene nanoribbons, unifying conductance behavior across different edge geometries.

Findings

Edge disorder induces a conduction gap in GNRs.

Anderson localization is responsible for conductance suppression.

Edge disorder enhances density of states at edges.

Abstract

We study the effect of the edge disorder on the conductance of the graphene nanoribbons (GNRs). We find that only very modest edge disorder is sufficient to induce the conduction energy gap in the otherwise metallic GNRs and to lift any difference in the conductance between nanoribbons of different edge geometry. We relate the formation of the conduction gap to the pronounced edge disorder induced Anderson-type localization which leads to the strongly enhanced density of states at the edges, formation of surface-like states and to blocking of conductive paths through the ribbons.