Electronic transport in graphene nanoribbons with sublattice-asymmetric doping

TL;DR

This paper theoretically investigates how sublattice-asymmetric doping affects electronic transport in graphene nanoribbons, revealing edge-dependent behaviors, potential leakage at boundaries, and the formation of metallic channels with waveguiding potential.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed theoretical analysis of edge effects and domain interfaces in doped graphene nanoribbons, highlighting new transport phenomena and waveguiding possibilities.

Findings

Zigzag edges suppress bandgaps and induce scattering.

Impurities cause leakage near grain boundaries and etched devices.

Metallic channels form at sublattice domain interfaces.

Abstract

Recent experimental findings and theoretical predictions suggest that nitrogen-doped CVD-grown graphene may give rise to electronic band gaps due to impurity distributions which favour segregation on a single sublattice. Here we demonstrate theoretically that such distributions give rise to more complex behaviour in the presence of edges, where geometry determines whether electrons in the sample view the impurities as a gap-opening average potential or as scatterers. Zigzag edges give rise to the latter case, and remove the electronic bandgaps predicted in extended graphene samples. We predict that such behaviour will give rise to leakage near grain boundaries with a similar geometry or in zigzag-edged etched devices. Furthermore, we examine the formation of one-dimensional metallic channels at interfaces between different sublattice domains, which should be observable experimentally and offer intriguing waveguiding possibilities.