Peculiar Width Dependence of the Electronic Property of Carbon Nanoribbons

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the electronic properties of carbon nanoribbons depend on their width, revealing a peculiar and structured relationship that influences their metallic or semiconducting behavior.

Contribution

It introduces a classification of nanoribbons by two integers and uncovers a unique width-dependent pattern in their electronic properties.

Findings

Electronic properties depend on width $w$ in a valley structure.

Sequences of nanoribbons with similar electronic behavior are indexed by width.

Zigzag and armchair nanoribbons exhibit properties analogous to nanotubes.

Abstract

Nanoribbons (nanographite ribbons) are carbon systems analogous to carbon nanotubes. We characterize a wide class of nanoribbons by a set of two integers $<p,q>$, and then define the width $w$ in terms of $p$ and $q$. Electronic properties are explored for this class of nanoribbons. Zigzag (armchair) nanoribbons have similar electronic properties to armchair (zigzag) nanotubes. The band gap structure of nanoribbons exhibits a valley structure with stream-like sequences of metallic or almost metallic nanoribbons. These sequences correspond to equi-width curves indexed by $w$. We reveal a peculiar dependence of the electronic property of nanoribbons on the width $w$.