Defect-induced Fermi level pinning and suppression of ambipolar behaviour in graphene

TL;DR

This study investigates how defect creation in disordered graphene nanowires leads to Fermi level pinning and a transition to unipolar transport, with implications for electronic device behavior.

Contribution

It demonstrates that helium ion-induced defects cause Fermi level pinning and suppress ambipolarity in graphene, revealing the role of dangling bonds and defect types in electronic transport.

Findings

Unipolar transport emerges at defect concentrations >0.3%

Conductance plateau observed above the Dirac point

Minimum conductivity decreases with more defects

Abstract

We report on systematic study of electronic transport in low-biased, disordered graphene nanowires. We reveal the emergence of unipolar transport as the defect concentration increases beyond 0.3\% where an almost insulating behaviour is observed on n-type channels whilst a metallic behaviour is observed in p-type channels. The conductance shows a plateau that extends through the entire side above the Dirac point (n-type) and the conductivity coincides with the minimum conductivity at the Dirac point. The minimum conductivity decreases with increasing defect concentration pointing out towards the absence of zero energy modes in the disordered samples. Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy were used to probe the nature of the defects created by helium ion irradiation and revealed the presence of oxygen-carbon bonds as well as the presence of $sp^3$ configuration uncovered from the C KLL Auger spectrum. The observed behaviour is attributed to the dangling bonds created by sputtering of carbon atoms in graphene lattice by bombarding helium ions. The dangling bonds act as charge traps, pinning the Fermi level to the Dirac point.