Transport in armchair graphene nanoribbons and in ordinary waveguides

TL;DR

This paper compares dc and ac transport properties of armchair graphene nanoribbons and ordinary waveguides, highlighting the effects of impurity scattering, frequency-dependent conductivities, and spectral differences.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of impurity scattering effects and frequency-dependent conductivities in graphene nanoribbons versus waveguides, revealing richer spectral features in nanoribbons.

Findings

Conductivities increase with electron density.

Cusps occur at subband onsets.

Nanoribbons show complex peak structures due to allowed interband transitions.

Abstract

We study dc and ac transport along armchair graphene nanoribbons using the ${\bf k\cdot p}$ spectrum and eigenfunctions and general linear-response expressions for the conductivities. Then we contrast the results with those for transport along ordinary waveguides. In all cases we assess the influence of elastic scattering by impurities, describe it quantitatively with a Drude-type contribution to the current previously not reported, and evaluate the corresponding relaxation time for long- and short-range impurity potentials. We show that this contribution dominates the response at very low frequencies. In both cases the conductivities increase with the electron density and show cusps when new subbands start being occupied. As functions of the frequency the conductivities in armchair graphene nanoribbons exhibit a much richer peak structure than in ordinary waveguides: in the former intraband and interband transitions are allowed whereas in the latter only the intraband ones occur. This difference can be traced to that between the corresponding spectra and eigenfunctions.