Theoretical Study on Transport Properties of Normal Metal - Zigzag Graphene Nanoribbon - Normal Metal Junctions

TL;DR

This theoretical study explores how the transport properties of zigzag graphene nanoribbon junctions with normal metals depend on the number of legs, revealing parity-dependent conductance behaviors and channel filtering effects.

Contribution

It provides a detailed theoretical analysis of transport in zigzag graphene nanoribbon junctions, highlighting parity effects and singular behaviors near zero energy.

Findings

Conductance depends on the parity of the number of legs in the nanoribbon.

Singular behaviors are observed near the Fermi energy E=0.

Channel filtering occurs when the number of legs is even.

Abstract

We investigate transport properties of the junctions in which the graphene nanoribbon with the zigzag shaped edges consisting of the $N$ legs is sandwiched by the two normal metals by means of recursive Green's function method. The conductance and the transmission probabilities are found to have the remarkable properties depending on the parity of $N$. The singular behaviors close to E=0 with $E$ being the Fermi energy are demonstrated. The channel filtering is shown to occur in the case with $N=$ even.