Seamless Staircase Electrical Contact to Semiconducting Graphene Nanoribbons

Ma, Chuanxu; Liang, Liangbo; Xiao, Zhongcan; Puretzky, Alexander A.; Hong, Kunlun; Lu, Wenchang; Meunier, Vincent; Bernholc, J.; Li, An-Ping

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b02938

Title: Seamless Staircase Electrical Contact to Semiconducting Graphene Nanoribbons

Journal Article · 06 September 2017 · Nano Letters

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b02938 · OSTI ID:1484739

Ma, Chuanxu ^[1]; Liang, Liangbo ^[1]; Xiao, Zhongcan ^[2]; Puretzky, Alexander A. ^[1];

^[1]; Lu, Wenchang ^[3];

^[4]; Bernholc, J. ^[3];

^[1]

Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States)
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 (E_F). Yet, low-D metals possessing a limited density of states at E_F 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.

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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

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Cited by: 63 works

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