title: Quantum transport in graphene nanoribbons: effects of edge reconstruction and chemical reactivity.
abstract: We present first-principles transport calculations of graphene nanoribbons with chemically reconstructed edge profiles. Depending on the geometry of the defect and the degree of hydrogenation, spectacularly different transport mechanisms are obtained. In the case of monohydrogenated pentagon (heptagon) defects, an effective acceptor (donor) character results in strong electron-hole conductance asymmetry. In contrast, weak backscattering is obtained for defects that preserve the benzenoid structure of graphene. Based on a tight-binding model derived from ab initio calculations, evidence for large conductance scaling fluctuations are found in disordered ribbons with lengths up to the micrometer scale.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences (IMCN), European Theoretical Spectroscopy Facility (ETSF), Universite Catholique de Louvain, Place Croix du Sud 1 (PCPM-Boltzmann), 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. smmfnd2@cam.ac.uk
authors.forename: Simon M-M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Dubois
authors.forename: Alejandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lopez-Bezanilla
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cresti
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Triozon
authors.forename: Blanca
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Biel
authors.forename: Jean-Christophe
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Charlier
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Roche