Charge transport mechanism in networks of armchair graphene nanoribbons

Nils Richter; Zongping Chen; Alexander Tries; Thorsten Prechtl; Akimitsu Narita; Klaus Müllen; Kamal Asadi; Mischa Bonn; Mathias Kläui

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-58660-w

Charge transport mechanism in networks of armchair graphene nanoribbons

Nils Richter, Zongping Chen, Alexander Tries, Thorsten Prechtl, Akimitsu Narita, Klaus Müllen, Kamal Asadi, Mischa Bonn, Mathias Kläui

Department of Physics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

46 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

In graphene nanoribbons (GNRs), the lateral confinement of charge carriers opens a band gap, the key feature that enables novel graphene-based electronics. Despite great progress, reliable and reproducible fabrication of single-ribbon field-effect transistors (FETs) is still a challenge, impeding the understanding of the charge transport. Here, we present reproducible fabrication of armchair GNR-FETs based on networks of nanoribbons and analyze the charge transport mechanism using nine-atom wide and, in particular, five-atom-wide GNRs with large conductivity. We show formation of reliable Ohmic contacts and a yield of functional FETs close to unity by lamination of GNRs to electrodes. Modeling the charge transport in the networks reveals that transport is governed by inter-ribbon hopping mediated by nuclear tunneling, with a hopping length comparable to the physical GNR length. Overcoming the challenge of low-yield single-ribbon transistors by the networks and identifying the corresponding charge transport mechanism is a key step forward for functionalization of GNRs.

Original language	English
Article number	1988
Journal	Scientific Reports
Volume	10
Issue number	1
Early online date	6 Feb 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-58660-w
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2020

Funding

We thank Tim Dumslaff for the preparation of the monomer precursor of 9-AGNR. We thank Wojciech Pisula for providing the electrical characterization setup in a nitrogen gas glove box. We thank Paul Blom and Marie-Luise Braatz for stimulating discussions. This work was financially supported by the DFG primarily through the Priority Program Graphene SPP 1459 and partly by SFB TRR 173 Spin + X, the Max Planck Society, the Seventh Framework Programme within the project Moquas Molecular Quantum Spintronics FET-ICT-2013-10 610449 and the US Office of Naval Research BRC Program. N.R. gratefully acknowledges the MAINZ Graduate School of Excellence (DFG GSC/266) as well as the Carl Zeiss Stiftung. A.T. is a recipient of a DFG-fellowship through the Excellence Initiative by the Graduate School Materials Science in Mainz (DFG GSC/266). K.A. is grateful to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for the funding provided in the framework of the Sofja Kovalevskaja Award, endowed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany.

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Charge transport mechanism in networks of armchair graphene nanoribbons

Abstract

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