Direct writing of heterostructures in single atomically precise graphene nanoribbons

Chuanxu Ma, Zhongcan Xiao, Jingsong Huang, Liangbo Liang, Wenchang Lu, Kunlun Hong, Bobby G. Sumpter, J. Bernholc, An Ping Li

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20 Scopus citations

Abstract

Precision control of interfacial structures and electronic properties is the key to the realization of functional heterostructures. Here, utilizing the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) both as a manipulation and characterization tool, we demonstrate the fabrication of a heterostructure in a single atomically precise graphene nanoribbon (GNR) and report its electronic properties. The heterostructure is made of a seven-carbon-wide armchair GNR and a lower band gap intermediate ribbon synthesized bottom-up from a molecular precursor on an Au substrate. The short GNR segments are directly written in the ribbon with a STM tip to form atomic precision intraribbon heterostructures. Based on STM studies combined with density functional theory calculations, we show that the heterostructure has a type-I band alignment, with manifestations of quantum confinement and orbital hybridization. Our finding demonstrates a feasible strategy to create a double-barrier quantum dot structure with atomic precision for functionalities, such as negative differential resistance devices in GNR-based nanoelectronics.

Original languageEnglish
Article number016001
JournalPhysical Review Materials
Volume3
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 3 2019

Funding

A portion of this research was conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS), which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility. The research was funded by Grants No. ONR N00014-16-1-3213 and No. N00014-16-1-3153, and DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-98ER45685. The development of the rmg code was funded by NSF Grant No. OAC-1740309. Supercomputer time was provided by NSF Grant No. ACI-1615114 at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NSF Grants No. OCI-0725070 and No. ACI-1238993).

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