Hexagonal-boron nitride substrates for electroburnt graphene nanojunctions

TL;DR

This study investigates how hexagonal boron nitride substrates influence electron transport in graphene nanojunctions, revealing minimal impact on current and quantum interference effects during gap formation.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the role of hBN substrates in graphene nanojunctions, combining molecular dynamics and density functional theory for analysis.

Findings

hBN slightly reduces current at low biases

quantum interference affects current during breaking

single filament current exceeds parallel filaments

Abstract

We examine the effect of a hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) substrate on electron transport through graphene nanojunctions just before gap formation. Junctions in vacuum and on hBN are formed using classical molecular dynamics to create initial structures, followed by relaxation using density functional theory. We find that the hBN only slightly reduces the current through the junctions at low biases. Furthermore due to quantum interference at the last moments of breaking, the current though a single carbon filament spanning the gap is found to be higher than the current through two filaments spanning the gap in parallel. This feature is present both in the presence of absence of hBN.