Elementary building blocks of graphene-nanoribbon-based electronic devices

Abstract

Graphene nanoribbon junction based electronic devices are proposed in this letter. Nonequilibrium Green’s function calculations show that nanoribbon junctions tailored from single layer graphene with different edge shapes and widths can act as metal/semiconductor junctions and quantum dots can be implemented. In virtue of the possibilities of patterning monolayer graphene down to atomic precision, these structures, quite different from the previously reported two-dimensional bulk graphene or carbon nanotube devices, are expected to be used as the building blocks of the future nanoelectronics.