Electron transport of L-shaped graphene nanoribbons

Abstract

L-shaped graphene nanoribbons (LGNRs) are important components of nanoelectronics and nanocircuits. By using the Green’s function method, we study the transport properties of LGNRs, which consist of a semi-infinite armchair edged nanoribbon (AGNR) and a semi-infinite zigzag edged nanoribbon (ZGNR). The width of AGNR determines whether the LGNR is metallic or not. The LGNR with a small included angle has high reflectance to the electrons, while the LGNR with a large included angle is nearly reflectionless. These are opposite to the transport characteristics of the LGNRs, which consist of two semi-infinite ZGNRs. As to the right-angle LGNR, its transport properties are associated with the width of ZGNR. The increase of width will decrease the conductance around the Fermi energy and simultaneously induce sharp conductance dips. In addition, an interesting spatially resolved local density of state is found in the right-angle LGNR.