Conductance Asymmetry of Graphene p-n Junction

Abstract

<para xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> We use the nonequilibrium Green function method in the ballistic limit to provide a quantitative description of the conductance of graphene p-n junctions—an important building block for graphene electronics devices. In this paper, recent experiments on graphene junctions are explained by a ballistic transport model, but only if the finite junction transition width <formula formulatype="inline"><tex Notation="TeX">$D_{w}$</tex></formula> is accounted for. In particular, the experimentally observed anomalous increase in the resistance asymmetry between n-n and n-p junctions under low source/drain charge density conditions is also quantitatively captured by our model. In light of the requirement for sharp junctions in applications such as electron focusing, we also examine the p-n junction conductance in the regime where <formula formulatype="inline"><tex Notation="TeX">$D_{w}$</tex></formula> is small and find that wave-function mismatch (so-called pseudospin) plays a major role in sharp p-n junctions. </para>