Energy band-gap engineering of graphene nanoribbons

We investigate electronic transport in lithographically patterned graphene ribbon structures where the lateral confinement of charge carriers creates an energy gap near the charge neutrality point. Individual graphene layers are contacted with metal electrodes and patterned into ribbons of varying widths and different crystallographic orientations. The temperature dependent conductance measurements show larger energy gaps opening for narrower ribbons. The sizes of these energy gaps are investigated by measuring the conductance in the nonlinear response regime at low temperatures. We find that the energy gap scales inversely with the ribbon width, thus demonstrating the ability to engineer the band gap of graphene nanostructures by lithographic processes.