Signatures of disorder in the minimum conductivity of graphene

Yang Sui, Tony Low, Mark Lundstrom, Joerg Appenzeller

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

28 Scopus citations

Abstract

Graphene has been proposed as a promising material for future nanoelectronics because of its unique electronic properties. Understanding the scaling behavior of this new nanomaterial under common experimental conditions is of critical importance for developing graphene-based nanoscale devices. We present a comprehensive experimental and theoretical study on the influence of edge disorder and bulk disorder on the minimum conductivity of graphene ribbons. For the first time, we discovered a strong nonmonotonic size scaling behavior featuring a peak and saturation minimum conductivity. Through extensive numerical simulations and analysis, we are able to attribute these features to the amount of edge and bulk disorder in graphene devices. This study elucidates the quantum transport mechanisms in realistic experimental graphene systems, which can be used as a guideline for designing graphene-based nanoscale devices with improved performance.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1319-1322
Number of pages4
JournalNano letters
Volume11
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 9 2011

Keywords

  • Graphene
  • disorder
  • edge states
  • evanescent
  • minimum conductivity
  • scaling

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