Mobility in Semiconducting Graphene Nanoribbons: Phonon, Impurity, and Edge Roughness Scattering

TL;DR

This paper investigates how phonon, impurity, and edge roughness scattering affect carrier transport in semiconducting graphene nanoribbons, highlighting their relative importance and suggesting ways to enhance mobility.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of scattering mechanisms in graphene nanoribbons and offers strategies to improve low-field mobility.

Findings

Impurity and phonon scattering are as significant as edge roughness scattering.

The importance of scattering mechanisms varies with temperature, Fermi level, and ribbon width.

Strategies for mobility enhancement are proposed.

Abstract

The transport properties of carriers in semiconducting graphene nanoribbons are studied by comparing the effects of phonon, impurity, and line-edge roughness scattering. It is found that scattering from impurities located at the surface of nanoribbons, and from acoustic phonons are as important as line edge roughness scattering. The relative importance of these scattering mechanisms varies with the temperature, Fermi level location, and the width of the ribbons. Based on the analysis, strategies for improvement of low-field mobility are described.