Effect of disorder with long-range correlation on transport in graphene nanoribbon

TL;DR

This study investigates how long-range correlated disorder affects electron transport in graphene nanoribbons, revealing a disorder-induced metal-insulator transition and complex conductance behaviors depending on doping and aspect ratio.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the impact of long-range correlated disorder on transport properties and phase transitions in graphene nanoribbons.

Findings

Metal-insulator transition induced by disorder in neutral AGR.

Conductance quantization in metallic phase and exponential decay in insulating phase.

Different conductance behaviors in doped versus neutral AGR with increasing disorder.

Abstract

Transport in disordered armchair graphene nanoribbons (AGR) with long-range correlation between quantum wire contact is investigated by transfer matrix combined with Landauer's formula. Metal-insulator transition is induced by disorder in neutral AGR. Thereinto, the conductance is one conductance quantum for metallic phase and exponentially decays otherwise when the length of AGR is infinity and far longer than its width. Similar to the case of long-range disorder, the conductance of neutral AGR first increases and then decreases while the conductance of doped AGR monotonically decreases, as the disorder strength increases. In the presence of strong disorder, the conductivity depends monotonically and non-monotonically on the aspect ratio for heavily doped and slightly doped AGR respectively.