Unraveling the electronic structure of narrow atomically-precise chiral graphene nanoribbons

TL;DR

This paper provides a detailed electronic structure characterization of chiral graphene nanoribbons with atomic precision, using advanced microscopy, spectroscopy, and theoretical methods to reveal their band structure and epitaxy.

Contribution

It presents the first comprehensive analysis of the electronic properties of (3,1)-chiral graphene nanoribbons synthesized with atomic precision.

Findings

Determined the band gap and effective masses of frontier bands.

Revealed the epitaxial relationship between nanoribbons and Au(111).

Mapped the electronic band structure using multiple techniques.

Abstract

Recent advances in graphene nanoribbon-based research have demonstrated the controlled synthesis of chiral graphene nanoribbons (cGNR) with atomic precision using strategies of on-surface chemistry. However their electronic characterization, including typical figures of merit like band gap or frontier bands effective masses, has not yet been reported. In this work, we provide a detailed characterization of (3,1)-cGNRs on Au(111). The structure and epitaxy, as well as the electronic band structure of the ribbons, are analyzed by means of scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, angle resolved photoemission and density functional theory.