Electronic structure of bilayer graphene nanoribbon and its device application: A computational study

Abstract

Two-dimensional monolayer graphene has the unique electrical and physical properties which can be exploited in new device structures. However, its application in field-effect device structure is limited due to its semi-metal nature. Therefore, a lot of research efforts have been focussed on introducing an energy bandgap in the electronic structure. For example, a commonly studied method involves cutting two-dimensional graphene into one-dimensional narrow ribbons (graphene nanoribbons), where the spatial quantum confinement introduced by the physical edges generates an energy bandgap that is closely related to the width and edge configurations of the ribbon. Similarly for a bilayer graphene, an energy bandgap can also be obtained like the monolayer graphene nanoribbons, and be further controlled by varying its interlayer distance. In this chapter, a review of the electronic structure of monolayer graphene nanoribbon is presented and the study on the bilayer counterpart is subsequently discussed. Furthermore, based on the electrical properties of the bilayer graphene nanoribbon, the device performance of the Schottky barrier diode is investigated. Lastly, a nanoelectromechanical (NEM) switch based on the floating gate design is presented and discussed. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012.