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Title: Seamless Staircase Electrical Contact to Semiconducting Graphene Nanoribbons

Journal Article · · Nano Letters
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [3]; ORCiD logo [4];  [3]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  2. North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States)
  3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States)
  4. Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst., Troy, NY (United States)

Electrical contact to low-dimensional (low-D) materials is a key to their electronic applications. Traditional metal contacts to low-D semiconductors typically create gap states that can pin the Fermi level (EF). Yet, low-D metals possessing a limited density of states at EF can enable gate-tunable work functions and contact barriers. Furthermore, a seamless contact with native bonds at the interface, without localized interfacial states, can serve as an optimal electrode. To realize such a seamless contact, one needs to develop atomically precise heterojunctions from the atom up. In this work, we demonstrate an all-carbon staircase contact to ultranarrow armchair graphene nanoribbons (aGNRs). The coherent heterostructures of width-variable aGNRs, consisting of 7, 14, 21, and up to 56 carbon atoms across the width, are synthesized by a surface-assisted self-assembly process with a single molecular precursor. The aGNRs exhibit characteristic vibrational modes in Raman spectroscopy. A combined scanning tunneling microscopy and density functional theory study reveals the native covalent-bond nature and quasi-metallic contact characteristics of the interfaces. Our electronic measurements of such seamless GNR staircase constitute a promising first step toward making low resistance contacts.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-98ER45685
OSTI ID:
1484739
Journal Information:
Nano Letters, Vol. 17, Issue 10; ISSN 1530-6984
Publisher:
American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 63 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (19)

Atomic‐Scale Manipulation and In Situ Characterization with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy journal October 2019
Edge morphology induced rectifier diode effect in C 3 N nanoribbon journal January 2018
On‐Surface Synthesis of 8‐ and 10‐Armchair Graphene Nanoribbons journal March 2019
Finding the hidden valence band of N  =  7 armchair graphene nanoribbons with angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy journal April 2018
Covalent on-surface polymerization journal January 2020
Engineered electronic states in atomically precise artificial lattices and graphene nanoribbons journal January 2019
On‐Surface Synthesis and Spectroscopic Characterization of Laterally Extended Chevron Graphene Nanoribbons journal June 2019
Step edge-mediated assembly of periodic arrays of long graphene nanoribbons on Au(111) journal January 2019
Optimized Substrates and Measurement Approaches for Raman Spectroscopy of Graphene Nanoribbons journal November 2019
On-Surface Synthesis of Carbon Nanostructures journal March 2018
Design of Atomically Precise Nanoscale Negative Differential Resistance Devices journal September 2018
Diacetylene Linked Anthracene Oligomers Synthesized by One-Shot Homocoupling of Trimethylsilyl on Cu(111) journal July 2018
Optimized Substrates and Measurement Approaches for Raman Spectroscopy of Graphene Nanoribbons text January 2019
Design of Atomically Precise Nanoscale Negative Differential Resistance Devices text January 2018
Engineered electronic states in atomically precise artificial lattices and graphene nanoribbons text January 2019
Optimized substrates and measurement approaches for Raman spectroscopy of graphene nanoribbons text January 2019
Step edge-mediated assembly of periodic arrays of long graphene nanoribbons on Au(111) preprint January 2019
Controlling a Chemical Coupling Reaction on a Surface: Tools and Strategies for On-Surface Synthesis journal March 2019
Surface Nanostructure Formation and Atomic-Scale Templates for Nanodevices journal March 2018