Switching Behavior of Carbon Chains Bridging Graphene Nanoribbons: Effects of Uniaxial Strain

Abstract

Recently, several experiments demonstrated the stability of chain-like carbon nanowires bridged between graphene nanoribbons, paving the way for potential applications in nanodevices. On the basis of density functional tight-binding calculations, we demonstrated switching for chains terminated with a five-membered ring under an applied strain, serving as a model for morphological changes in realistic materials. Electron transport calculations showed an increase of up to 100% in the output current, achieved at a reverse bias voltage of -2 V and an applied strain of just 1.5%. Structural analysis suggested that the switching is driven by conformational changes, where in our case is triggered by the formation and annihilation of a five-membered ring at the interface of the chain-graphene edge. In addition, we showed that a five-membered ring can easily be formed at the interface under a source-drain bias or through a gate voltage. This mechanism can serve as an explanation of experimentally observed conductance for the materials.

Mechanical properties of carbynes investigated byab initiototal-energy calculations

“…9,10 In a pure-carbon environment carbynes are far more stable. [11][12][13][14][15] Effects of longitudinal straining [16][17][18][19] and lateral bending 20 were investigated very recently by ab initio methods. The outcome of those studies is that carbyne chains are at one time extremely stiff against longitudinal straining and very soft against a bending deformation, to the extent that even extreme bending only moderately affects their bonding properties.…”

Fabrication and electrochemical properties of flexible transparent supercapacitor electrode materials based on cellulose nanofibrils and reduced graphene oxide

“…The abundant smooth wrinkles that appeared on the film were probably because of the overlapping edges of the RGO nanosheets. These wrinkles appear as raised bridges, which are very favorable for electron transmission …”

“…These wrinkles appear as raised bridges, which are very favorable for electron transmission. [34,35] F I G U R E 5 A, Optical images of the CNF film and CNFs/GO (18) and CNFs/RGO (18) composite films. B, The transmittance of the CNF film, CNFs/GO (18) composite films and CNF/RGO (18) composite films.…”

First-principles investigation on the electronic efficiency and binding energy of the contacts formed by graphene and poly-aromatic hydrocarbon anchoring groups

“…S1 in the supplementary material). 32 Since alkyne chains have a high conductance [33][34][35][36][37] and considering that perfect graphene is a zero-gap semiconductor, the low transmission near the Fermi FIG. 2.…”