skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Finding the hidden valence band of N = 7 armchair graphene nanoribbons with angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy

Journal Article · · 2D Materials
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [4];  [5];  [6]; ORCiD logo [5]
  1. Univ. zu Koln, Koln (Germany); St. Petersburg State Univ., St. Petersburg (Russia)
  2. St. Petersburg State Univ., St. Petersburg (Russia)
  3. St. Petersburg State Univ., St. Petersburg (Russia); IFW-Dresden, HelmholtzstraBe (Germany)
  4. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  5. Univ. zu Koln, Koln (Germany)
  6. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

To understand the optical and transport properties of graphene nanoribbons, an unambiguous determination of their electronic band structure is needed. In this work we demonstrate that the photoemission intensity of each valence sub-band, formed due to the quantum confinement in quasi-one-dimensional (1D) graphene nanoribbons, is a peaked function of the two-dimensional (2D) momentum. We resolve the long-standing discrepancy regarding the valence band effective mass (m*VB) of armchair graphene nanoribbons with a width of N = 7 carbon atoms (7-AGNRs). In particular, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and scanning tunneling spectroscopy report m*VB ≈0.2 and ≈0.4 of the free electron mass (me), respectively. ARPES mapping in the full 2D momentum space identifies the experimental conditions for obtaining a large intensity for each of the three highest valence 1D sub-bands. Our detail map reveals that previous ARPES experiments have incorrectly assigned the second sub-band as the frontier one. The correct frontier valence sub-band for 7-AGNRs is only visible in a narrow range of emission angles. For this band we obtain an ARPES derived effective mass of 0.4 me, a charge carrier velocity in the linear part of the band of 0.63 x 106 m s-1 and an energy separation of only ≈60 meV to the second sub-band. Lastly, our results are of importance not only for the growing research field of graphene nanoribbons but also for the community, which studies quantum confined systems.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1460343
Journal Information:
2D Materials, Vol. 5, Issue 3; ISSN 2053-1583
Publisher:
IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 19 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (73)

Atomically precise bottom-up fabrication of graphene nanoribbons journal July 2010
Tuning the Band Gap of Graphene Nanoribbons Synthesized from Molecular Precursors journal June 2013
Exciton-dominated optical response of ultra-narrow graphene nanoribbons journal July 2014
Graphene nanoribbon heterojunctions journal September 2014
Molecular bandgap engineering of bottom-up synthesized graphene nanoribbon heterojunctions journal January 2015
Atomically controlled substitutional boron-doping of graphene nanoribbons journal August 2015
Site-Specific Substitutional Boron Doping of Semiconducting Armchair Graphene Nanoribbons journal July 2015
Nitrogen-Doping Induced Self-Assembly of Graphene Nanoribbon-Based Two-Dimensional and Three-Dimensional Metamaterials journal August 2015
On-Surface Synthesis of Rylene-Type Graphene Nanoribbons journal March 2015
Ultra-narrow metallic armchair graphene nanoribbons journal December 2015
On-surface synthesis of graphene nanoribbons with zigzag edge topology journal March 2016
Substrate-Independent Growth of Atomically Precise Chiral Graphene Nanoribbons journal August 2016
On-Surface Synthesis of Atomically Precise Graphene Nanoribbons journal February 2016
Raman Fingerprints of Atomically Precise Graphene Nanoribbons journal May 2016
Giant edge state splitting at atomically precise graphene zigzag edges journal May 2016
Making Graphene Nanoribbons Photoluminescent journal April 2017
Experimental and Theoretical Investigations of Surface-Assisted Graphene Nanoribbon Synthesis Featuring Carbon–Fluorine Bond Cleavage journal May 2017
Graphene-like nanoribbons periodically embedded with four- and eight-membered rings journal March 2017
Quantum Dots in Graphene Nanoribbons journal June 2017
Doping of Graphene Nanoribbons via Functional Group Edge Modification journal July 2017
Atomically precise graphene nanoribbon heterojunctions from a single molecular precursor journal September 2017
Voltage-dependent conductance of a single graphene nanoribbon journal October 2012
Bottom-up graphene nanoribbon field-effect transistors journal December 2013
Revealing the Electronic Structure of Silicon Intercalated Armchair Graphene Nanoribbons by Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy journal March 2017
Semiconductor-to-Metal Transition and Quasiparticle Renormalization in Doped Graphene Nanoribbons journal March 2017
Seamless Staircase Electrical Contact to Semiconducting Graphene Nanoribbons journal September 2017
Quantum Dots Embedded in Graphene Nanoribbons by Chemical Substitution journal December 2016
Electronic Structure of Atomically Precise Graphene Nanoribbons journal July 2012
Effect of electron injection in copper-contacted graphene nanoribbons journal July 2016
Spectroscopic characterization of N  = 9 armchair graphene nanoribbons : Spectroscopic characterization of journal July 2017
Electronic band dispersion of graphene nanoribbons via Fourier-transformed scanning tunneling spectroscopy journal January 2015
On-Surface Synthesis and Characterization of 9-Atom Wide Armchair Graphene Nanoribbons journal February 2017
Quasi one-dimensional band dispersion and surface metallization in long-range ordered polymeric wires journal January 2016
Tunable Band Alignment with Unperturbed Carrier Mobility of On-Surface Synthesized Organic Semiconducting Wires journal January 2016
Π Band Dispersion along Conjugated Organic Nanowires Synthesized on a Metal Oxide Semiconductor journal April 2016
Analytical study of electronic structure in armchair graphene nanoribbons journal April 2007
Electron Wave Function in Armchair Graphene Nanoribbons journal April 2011
Intra- and Intermolecular Band Dispersion in an Organic Crystal journal July 2007
Reconstruction of Molecular Orbital Densities from Photoemission Data journal September 2009
Simulation of angle-resolved photoemission spectra by approximating the final state by a plane wave: From graphene to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecules journal April 2015
Lateral quantum wells at vicinal Au(111) studied with angle-resolved photoemission journal December 2002
Measurement of electron wave functions and confining potentials via photoemission journal February 2003
Brillouin-zone-selection effects in graphite photoelectron angular distributions journal May 1995
Quasiparticle dynamics in graphene journal December 2006
Characterization of graphene through anisotropy of constant-energy maps in angle-resolved photoemission journal May 2008
Illuminating the dark corridor in graphene: Polarization dependence of angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy on graphene journal March 2011
Visualizing Electronic Chirality and Berry Phases in Graphene Systems Using Photoemission with Circularly Polarized Light journal October 2011
Direct measurement of quantum phases in graphene via photoemission spectroscopy journal September 2011
Sublattice Interference as the Origin of σ Band Kinks in Graphene journal May 2016
Interlayer Interaction and Electronic Screening in Multilayer Graphene Investigated with Angle-Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy journal May 2007
Energy-momentum mapping of d -derived Au(111) states in a thin film journal January 2016
Dirac cones reshaped by interaction effects in suspended graphene journal July 2011
Structural and electronic properties of graphene nanoflakes on Au(111) and Ag(111) journal March 2016
Full-potential nonorthogonal local-orbital minimum-basis band-structure scheme journal January 1999
Electronic states of graphene nanoribbons and analytical solutions journal October 2010
Dirac fermions and flat bands in the ideal kagome metal FeSn journal December 2019
Atomically controlled substitutional boron-doping of graphene nanoribbons text January 2015
Quantum Dots in Graphene Nanoribbons text January 2017
Revealing the Electronic Structure of Silicon Intercalated Armchair Graphene Nanoribbons by Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy text January 2017
On-Surface Synthesis and Characterization of 9-Atom Wide Armchair Graphene Nanoribbons text January 2017
Exciton-dominated optical response of ultra-narrow graphene nanoribbons text January 2014
On-Surface Synthesis of Atomically Precise Graphene Nanoribbons text January 2016
Giant edge state splitting at atomically precise graphene zigzag edges text January 2016
Atomically precise bottom-up fabrication of graphene nanoribbons text January 2010
Electronic band dispersion of graphene nanoribbons via Fourier-transformed scanning tunneling spectroscopy text January 2015
Illuminating the dark corridor in graphene: polarization dependence of angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy on graphene text January 2010
Dirac cones reshaped by interaction effects in suspended graphene text January 2011
Direct measurement of quantum phases in graphene via photoemission spectroscopy text January 2011
Electronic Band Dispersion of Graphene Nanoribbons via Fourier-Transformed Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy text January 2014
Energy-momentum mapping of d-derived Au(111) states in a thin film text January 2016
Measurement of electron wave functions and confining potentials via photoemission text January 2002
Analytical Study of Electronic Structure in Armchair Graphene Nanoribbons text January 2006
On-surface synthesis of graphene nanoribbons with zigzag edge topology text January 2016

Cited By (1)

Probing the origin of photoluminescence brightening in graphene nanoribbons journal April 2019

Figures / Tables (5)


Similar Records

Spectroscopic characterization of N = 9 armchair graphene nanoribbons
Journal Article · Mon Jul 03 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Physica Status Solidi. Rapid Research Letters · OSTI ID:1460343

Fermi-Level Engineering of Nitrogen Core-Doped Armchair Graphene Nanoribbons
Journal Article · Wed Aug 23 00:00:00 EDT 2023 · Journal of the American Chemical Society · OSTI ID:1460343

On-Surface Synthesis and Characterization of 9-Atom Wide Armchair Graphene Nanoribbons
Journal Article · Fri Jan 27 00:00:00 EST 2017 · ACS Nano · OSTI ID:1460343