Engineering performance of barristors by varying the thickness of WS2

We have investigated the performances of barristors with a graphene-tungsten disulfide (WS₂) junction by varying the thickness of WS₂ and gate oxide. On-current density (J_ON) and on- and off-current ratio (J_ON/J_OFF) increases, and sub-threshold swing (V_SS) decreases with the WS₂ thickness. Also, barristors with thicker WS₂ required less workfunction shift, to switch the barristors. Therefore, unlike the traditional devices, V_SS of barristor with gate dielectric 300 nm was smaller than that of 90 nm, when the former is fabricated with thicker WS₂ than the latter. Since materials properties of 2-dimensional semiconductors generally vary with their thickness, the thickness of 2D semiconductors could become a key parameter to engineer the performance of barristors with graphene and the 2D semiconductors.     

介质加载回旋行波管小信号分析

 应用分析回旋行波管绝对不稳定性的Briggs-Bers相碰判据与小信号色散方程,结合介质加载波导的冷场分析,数值计算并比较了不同介质加载条件下回旋行波管工作模式的起振电流与寄生模式的起振长度。改变加载介质的特性参数可以增加行波损耗从而显著提高工作模式起振电流,并抑制掉寄生模式的返波振荡。结合介质加载波导冷场分析与回旋行波管小信号色散方程,分析了介质加载条件下回旋行波管小信号增益,计算得出了不同介质加载条件下的回旋行波管的小信号增益带宽曲线。     

Theoretical modeling of experimental HREEL spectra for supported graphene

We present a simple model for the resonant feature designated as the π plasmon in single-layer graphene supported by a metal substrate, which is excited via high-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (HREELS) in the off-specular scattering geometry. Using a two-dimensional, two-fluid hydrodynamic model for interband transitions of graphene's π and σ electrons and an empirical Drude–Lorentz model for the metal in the local approximation enables us to reproduce, at the qualitative and semi-quantitative levels, the typical experimental features of the HREEL spectra in the visible to the ultraviolet frequency range.     

Surface adhesion properties of graphene and graphene oxide studied by colloid-probe atomic force microscopy

Surface adhesion properties are important to various applications of graphene-based materials. Atomic force microscopy is powerful to study the adhesion properties of samples by measuring the forces on the colloidal sphere tip as it approaches and retracts from the surface. In this paper we have measured the adhesion force between the colloid probe and the surface of graphene (graphene oxide) nanosheet. The results revealed that the adhesion force on graphene and graphene oxide surface were 66.3 and 170.6 nN, respectively. It was found the adhesion force was mainly determined by the water meniscus, which was related to the surface contact angle of samples.     

Small-signal modeling of GaN HEMT switch with a new intrinsic elements extraction method

A novel and accurate method is proposed to extract the intrinsic elements of the GaN high-electron-mobility transistor(HEMT) switch.The new extraction method is verified by comparing the simulated S-parameters with the measured data over the 5-40 GHz frequency range.The percentage errors E_(ij) within 3.83% show the great agreement between the simulated S-parameters and the measured data.     

Ultrasound assisted reduction of graphene oxide to graphene in l-ascorbic acid aqueous solutions: Kinetics and effects of various factors on the rate of graphene formation

The reduction of graphene oxide (GO) to graphene (rGO) was achieved by using 20 kHz ultrasound in l-ascorbic acid (l-AA, reducing agent) aqueous solutions under various experimental conditions. The effects of ultrasound power, ultrasound pulse mode, reaction temperature, pH value and l-AA amount on the rates of rGO formation from GO reduction were investigated. The rates of rGO formation were found to be enhanced under the following conditions: high ultrasound power, long pulse mode, high temperature, high pH value and large amount of l-AA. It was also found that the rGO formation under ultrasound treatment was accelerated in comparison with a conventional mechanical mixing treatment. The pseudo rate and pseudo activation energy (E_a) of rGO formation were determined to discuss the reaction kinetics under both treatment. The E_a value of rGO formation under ultrasound treatment was clearly lower than that obtained under mechanical mixing treatment at the same condition. We proposed that physical effects such as shear forces, microjets and shock waves during acoustic cavitation enhanced the mass transfer and reaction of l-AA with GO to form rGO as well as the change in the surface morphology of GO. In addition, the rates of rGO formation were suggested to be affected by local high temperatures of cavitation bubbles.     

Fano resonance in graphene anti-dot and periodic graphene anti-dot arrays

We study the electron transport properties of graphene anti-dot and periodic graphene anti-dot arrays using the nonequilibrium Green?s function method and Landauer–Büttiker formula. Fano resonant peaks are observed in the vicinity of Fermi energy, because discrete states coexist with continuum energy states. These peaks move closer to Fermi energy with increasing the width of anti-dots, but move away from the Fermi energy with increasing the length of anti-dots. When N periodic anti-dots exist in the longitude direction, a rapid fluctuation appears in the conductance with varying resonance peaks, which is mainly from the local resonances created by quasibound state. When P periodic anti-dots exist in the transverse direction, P-fold resonant splitting peaks are observed around the Fermi energy, owing to the symmetric and antisymmetric superposition of quasibound states.     

Nonvolatile graphene nanoflake shuttle memory

We present the possible schematics of nanoscale graphene-flake shuttle-memory, discuss its basic principles, and investigate the energetic and the dynamic properties via classical molecular dynamics simulations. Graphite flake surface, where the nanoscale graphene-flake’s stage of activity takes place, has a dumbbell shape, and a nanoscale graphene-flake is placed on its surface. The van der Waals interactions between the graphene-flake and the patterned graphite make the bistable potential energy wells in the larger surface area regions of the patterned graphite, and then the graphene-flake keeps its seat on one of the bistable positions, which is the place where the binary data is archived. Since the movable graphene-flake can be also shuttled between the bistable states through the narrow passageway, this proposed nano-graphene-flake shuttle-memory can be utilized from nanoscale switchable nonvolatile memory.     

沟道长度和宽度对石墨烯场效应晶体管电荷输运的影响

本文基于理论的方法研究了沟道长度和宽度对石墨烯场效应晶体管中大信号和小信号参数的影响. 在快速饱和及高特征频率条件下,石墨烯场效应晶体管均表现出优异的性能. 从传递曲线可以看到,随着沟道长度从440 nm变到20 nm,产生了一个从0.15 V 到0.35 V的狄拉克点正偏移,同时也揭示了石墨烯的双极特性. 而且,由于沟道变宽及漏电流增加,当沟道宽度为2 μm和5 μm时,相应的最大电流为2.4 mA和6 mA. 另外,还在石墨烯场效应晶体管中观察到了几乎对称的电容-电压特性,电容会随着沟道变短而减小,但另一方面电容又可以通过沟道展宽来增加. 最后,在沟道长度为20 nm处获得了一个6.4 mS的高跨导,在沟道宽度为5 μm处获得的跨导值为4.45 mS,特征频率为3.95 THz.     

Specific heat of graphene nanoribbons

We studied the specific heat of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) using an extended force constant model. We found that at low temperature, the specific heat decreases, and its variation with temperature increases with increasing GNR width. However, the specific heat increases with increasing GNR width after crossing a chaotic region. Free boundary conditions, -CHOH-terminated and armchair-edge-induced phonon nondegeneracy, shift and distortion and localized vibrational modes significantly influence GNR specific heat compared with periodic boundary conditions and bare and zigzag edges in GNRs. Finally, we found a uniform expression for specific heat vs. width at every temperature except for the chaotic region.     

Synthesis of graphene oxide and graphene quantum dots from miscanthus via ultrasound-assisted mechano-chemical cracking method

Whilst graphene materials have become increasingly popular in recent years, the followed synthesis strategies face sustainability, environmental and quality challenges. This study proposes an effective, sustainable and scalable ultrasound-assisted mechano-chemical cracking method to produce graphene oxide (GO). A typical energy crop, miscanthus, was used as a carbon precursor and pyrolysed at 1200 °C before subjecting to edge-carboxylation via ball-milling in a CO₂-induced environment. The resultant functionalised biochar was ultrasonically exfoliated in N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) and water to form GOs. The intermediate and end-products were characterised via X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) analyses. Results show that the proposed synthesis route can produce good quality and uniform GOs (8–10% monolayer), with up to 96% of GOs having three layers or lesser when NMP is used. Ultrasonication proved to be effective in propagating the self-repulsion of negatively-charged functional groups. Moreover, small amounts of graphene quantum dots were observed, illustrating the potential of producing various graphene materials via a single-step method. Whilst this study has only investigated utilising miscanthus, the current findings are promising and could expand the potential of producing good quality graphene materials from renewable sources via green synthesis routes.     

Facile preparation of graphene nitride by irradiating MHz ultrasound

The present study aimed at developing a simple sonochemical method to prepare graphene nitride from the mixture of graphite and aqueous ammonia solution. Ultrasound of 1.6 MHz was irradiated to the sample in a fabricated sonoreactor at predetermined ultrasonic power and duration. The one-pot method succeeded in the preparation of graphene nitride. The generation was proven by XPS analysis in finding N1S peak in the spectrum. Detail analysis of N1s peak suggested that the major nitrogen species was pyrrolic type. Furthermore, the presence of CO bond proved the oxidation by OH radical. The reaction product had the value of N/C as high as 0.08, which is comparable to reported values for ultrasonic preparation of graphene nitride. The fact indicates that the significance of chemical effects of MHz range ultrasound, and the finding of the simple preparation method will accelerate practical application of graphene nitride.     

Developing accelerometer based on graphene nanoribbon resonators

We investigated an ultrahigh sensitive accelerometer based on graphene nanoribbon resonators. Sensing acceleration can be made by their resonance frequency shift and/or their capacitance change. Schematics and the static properties were introduced and the dynamic properties were investigated via classical molecular dynamics simulation. As the acceleration increased, the oscillations of the deflections were going dramatically faster and the mean deflections increased, then the capacitance continually varied with large amplitudes and the resonance frequencies linearly increased in a log–log scale by power regression. The energy loss decreased with increasing time, and the average quality factors were dramatically reduced with increasing acceleration.     

Transport properties of mesoscopic graphene rings

Based on a recursive Green's function method, we investigate the conductance of mesoscopic graphene rings in the presence of disorder, in the limit of phase coherent transport. Two models of disorder are considered: edge disorder and surface disorder. Our simulations show that the conductance decreases exponentially with the edge disorder and the surface disorder. In the presence of flux, a clear Aharonov-Bohm conductance oscillation with the period Φ₀ (Φ₀=h/e) is observed. The edge disorder and the surface disorder have no effect on the period of AB oscillation. The amplitudes of AB oscillations vary with gate voltage and flux, which is consistent with the previous results. Additionally, ballistic rectification and negative differential resistance are observed in I-V curves, with on/off characteristic.     

Electron transport of step-shaped graphene nanoribbon

In this work, we report a theoretical study of the electronic transport through a step-shaped graphene nanoribbon by the tight-binding method. We found that the conductance suppression near the Dirac point is pervasive, and the top boundary configuration is irrelevant; this arises from the antiresonance effect associated with an edge state localized at the transition edge of the top layer of graphene nanoribbon. In addition, the conductance can be easily tuned from zero to unity by a gate bias in the bilayer graphene nanoribbon, this feature will help us to realize the electric nanoswitch.     

Dwell time in one-dimensional graphene asymmetrical barrier

The authors have investigated theoretically the dwell time of Dirac fermions tunneling through electrostatic square barrier in monolayer graphene, including asymmetrical and symmetrical potential barriers. It is found that the incident angle determines the critical incident energy. When the incident energy is larger than the critical incident energy, the dwell time saturate with the increase of the barrier thickness. But when the incident energy is smaller than the critical incident energy, the dwell time oscillates with the increase of the barrier thickness. The behaviors of oscillation and saturation of the dwell time are related with the transmission probability. These results may be helpful for the basic physics and potential application of graphene based electronic devices.     

Phonon-mediated electron pairing in graphene

The possibility of superconducting pairing of electrons in doped graphene due to in-plane and out-of-plane phonons is studied. Quadratic coupling of electrons with out-of-plane phonons is considered in details, taking into account both deformation potential and bond-stretch contributions. The order parameter of electron-electron pairing can have different structures due to four-component spinor character of electrons wave function. We consider s-wave pairing, diagonal on conduction and valence bands, but having arbitrary structure with respect to valley degree of freedom. The sign and magnitude of contribution of each phonon mode to effective electron-electron interaction turns out to depend on both the symmetry of phonon mode and the structure of the order parameter. Unconventional orbital-spin symmetry of the order parameter is found.     

Transport in suspended graphene

Motivated by recent experiments on suspended graphene showing carrier mobilities as high as 200,000 cm²/V s, we theoretically calculate transport properties assuming Coulomb impurities as the dominant scattering mechanism. We argue that the substrate-free experiments done in the diffusive regime are consistent with our theory and verify many of our earlier predictions including (i) removal of the substrate will increase mobility since most of the charged impurities are in the substrate, (ii) the minimum conductivity is not universal, but depends on impurity concentration with cleaner samples having a higher minimum conductivity. We further argue that experiments on suspended graphene put strong constraints on the two parameters involved in our theory, namely, the charged impurity concentration and d, the typical distance of a charged impurity from the graphene sheet. The recent experiments on suspended graphene indicate a residual impurity density of which are presumably stuck to the graphene interface, compared to impurity densities of for graphene on SiO₂ substrate. Transport experiments can therefore be used as a spectroscopic tool to identify the properties of the remaining impurities in suspended graphene.     

Optical properties of geometrically optimized graphene quantum dots

We derive effective tight-binding model for geometrically optimized graphene quantum dots and based on it we investigate corresponding changes in their optical properties in comparison to ideal structures. We consider hexagonal and triangular dots with zigzag and armchair edges. Using density functional theory methods we show that displacement of lattice sites leads to changes in atomic distances and in consequence modifies their energy spectrum. We derive appropriate model within tight-binding method with edge-modified hopping integrals. Using group theoretical analysis, we determine allowed optical transitions and investigate oscillatory strength between bulk–bulk, bulk–edge and edge–edge transitions. We compare optical joint density of states for ideal and geometry optimized structures. We also investigate an enhanced effect of sites displacement which can be designed in artificial graphene-like nanostructures. A shift of absorption peaks is found for small structures, vanishing with increasing system size.     

Adsorption-induced magnetism properties in graphene

Using first-principles calculations, we investigate magnetic properties and electronic structures of graphene with H, N and P adsorptions. With a change in adsorption density from 1/50 to 1/162 a band gap changing from ∼1.2 to 0.1 eV emerges in a H-absorbed graphene, leading to the semiconducting graphene and showing ferromagnetism with the magnetic moment of the system changing from 0.76 to 0.42μ_B. The unpaired electrons in the absorbed N/P atoms are polarized and thus it exhibits magnetic moment per N/P atom changing from 0.38/0.20 to 0.60/0.14μ_B and metallic and half-metallic magnetism, respectively. The spin-polarized graphene system has a great application prospect in spintronics.