Authors

G. J. Ferreira; M. N. Leuenberger; D. Loss;J. C. Egues

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Phys. Rev. B

Keywords

Physics, Condensed Matter

Abstract

We theoretically investigate negative differential resistance (NDR) for ballistic transport in semiconducting armchair graphene nanoribbon (aGNR) superlattices (5 to 20 barriers) at low bias voltages V(SD) < 500 mV. We combine the graphene Dirac Hamiltonian with the Landauer-Buttiker formalism to calculate the current I(SD) through the system. We find three distinct transport regimes in which NDR occurs: (i) a "classical" regime for wide layers, through which the transport across band gaps is strongly suppressed, leading to alternating regions of nearly unity and zero transmission probabilities as a function of V(SD) due to crossing of band gaps from different layers; (ii) a quantum regime dominated by superlattice miniband conduction, with current suppression arising from the misalignment of miniband states with increasing V(SD); and (iii) a Wannier-Stark ladder regime with current peaks occurring at the crossings of Wannier-Stark rungs from distinct ladders. We observe NDR at voltage biases as low as 10 mV with a high current density, making the aGNR superlattices attractive for device applications.

Journal Title

Physical Review B

Volume

84

Issue/Number

12

Publication Date

1-1-2011

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

5

WOS Identifier

WOS:000295484300018

ISSN

1098-0121

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