0000000000599922
AUTHOR
Alexander Tries
Charge transport mechanism in networks of armchair graphene nanoribbons
In graphene nanoribbons (GNRs), the lateral confinement of charge carriers opens a band gap, the key feature to enable novel graphene-based electronics. Successful synthesis of GNRs has triggered efforts to realize field-effect transistors (FETs) based on single ribbons. Despite great progress, reliable and reproducible fabrication of single-ribbon FETs is still a challenge that impedes applications and the understanding of the charge transport. Here, we present reproducible fabrication of armchair GNR-FETs based on a network of nanoribbons and analyze the charge transport mechanism using nine-atom wide and, in particular, five-atom-wide GNRs with unprecedented conductivity. We show formati…
Electron transport and the effect of current annealing in a two-point contacted hBN/graphene/hBN heterostructure device
In this work, we fabricated a 2D van der Waals heterostructure device in an inert nitrogen atmosphere by means of a dry transfer technique in order to obtain a clean and largely impurity free stack of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN)-encapsulated few-layer graphene. The heterostructure was contacted from the top with gold leads on two sides, and the device’s properties including intrinsic charge carrier density, mobility, and contact resistance were studied as a function of temperature from 4 K to 270 K. We show that the contact resistance of the device mainly originates from the metal/graphene interface, which contributes a significant part to the total resistance. We demonstrate that current…
Experimental Observation of Strong Exciton Effects in Graphene Nanoribbons
Graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) with atomically precise width and edge structures are a promising class of nanomaterials for optoelectronics, thanks to their semiconducting nature and high mobility of charge carriers. Understanding the fundamental static optical properties and ultrafast dynamics of charge carrier generation in GNRs is essential for optoelectronic applications. Combining THz spectroscopy and theoretical calculations, we report a strong exciton effect with binding energy up to 700 meV in liquid-phase-dispersed GNRs with a width of 1.7 nm and an optical bandgap of 1.6 eV, illustrating the intrinsically strong Coulomb interactions between photogenerated electrons and holes. By trac…
Tunable Superstructures of Dendronized Graphene Nanoribbons in Liquid Phase
In this Communication, we report the first synthesis of structurally well-defined graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) functionalized with dendritic polymers. The resultant GNRs possess grafting ratios of 0.59-0.68 for the dendrons of different generations. Remarkably, the precise 3D branched conformation of the grafted dendrons affords the GNRs unprecedented 1D supramolecular self-assembly behavior in tetrahydrofuran (THF), yielding nanowires, helices and nanofibers depending on the dimension of the dendrons. The GNR superstructures in THF exhibit near-infrared absorption with maxima between 650 and 700 nm, yielding an optical bandgap of 1.2-1.3 eV. Ultrafast photoconductivity analyses unveil that …
Lateral Fusion of Chemical Vapor Deposited N = 5 Armchair Graphene Nanoribbons
Bottom-up synthesis of low-bandgap graphene nanoribbons with various widths is of great importance for their applications in electronic and optoelectronic devices. Here we demonstrate a synthesis of N = 5 armchair graphene nanoribbons (5-AGNRs) and their lateral fusion into wider AGNRs, by a chemical vapor deposition method. The efficient formation of 10- and 15- AGNRs is revealed by a combination of different spectroscopic methods, including Raman and UV−visnear-infrared spectroscopy as well as by scanning tunneling microscopy. The degree of fusion and thus the optical and electronic properties of the resulting GNRs can be controlled by the annealing temperature, providing GNR films with o…
Hysteresis in graphene nanoribbon field-effect devices
Hysteresis in the current response to a varying gate voltage is a common spurious effect in carbon-based field effect transistors. Here, we use electric transport measurements to probe the charge transport in networks of armchair graphene nanoribbons with a width of either 5 or 9 carbon atoms, synthesized in a bottom-up approach using chemical vapor deposition. Our systematic study on the hysteresis of such graphene nanoribbon transistors, in conjunction with temperature-dependent transport measurements shows that the hysteresis can be fully accounted for by trapping/detrapping carriers in the SiO2 layer. We extract the trap densities and depth, allowing us to identify shallow traps as the …