Control of electric current by graphene edge structure engineering

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that the electrical conductance in graphene nanoribbon junctions can be controlled by engineering the edge structure, specifically by modifying corner edges, enabling simple current regulation at nanoscale.

Contribution

It introduces a classification of conductance dips based on edge structures and shows control of current through partial edge modifications in graphene nanoribbons.

Findings

Zero conductance dips are linked to corner edge structures.

Controlling edge structure can switch conductance on or off.

Narrower than 10 nm ribbons are needed for room temperature observation.

Abstract

In graphene nanoribbon junctions, the nearly perfect transmission occurs in some junctions while the zero conductance dips due to anti-resonance appear in others. We have classified the appearance of zero conductance dips for all combinations of ribbon and junction edge structures. These transport properties do not attribute to the whole junction structure but the partial corner edge structure, which indicates that one can control the electric current simply by cutting a part of nanoribbon edge. The ribbon width is expected to be narrower than 10 nm in order to observe the zero conductance dips at room temperature.