A critical assessment on the electron transport through dehydrogenated intrinsically conducting channels in graphane-graphene hybrids

Abstract

We investigate the electron transport properties of different extended line/ribbon defects in hydrogenated graphene (graphane) by means of density functional theory combined with the non-equilibrium Green’s function formalism. The calculated zero-bias transmission profiles show that dehydrogenated tracks in graphane are promising candidates for fabricating printed nanocircuits. Our calculations also indicate that the gate-induced transmission probability of a completely dehydrogenated zigzag carbon line (DHZCL) in a freestanding graphane sheet opens a conduction channel in its insulating structure. The voltage-dependent transmission tends to increase for two weakly interacting DHZCL defects, although the transmission spectra critically depend on the proximity of these dehydrogenated lines. The current response to a bias voltage is also analyzed for the proposed defective devices and the calculated I-V characteristics show that one or two weakly interacting DHZCL defects in graphane behave as fair conduction channels from a certain threshold voltage. However, two immediately neighbor line defects (i.e., acene-type defects) exhibit a conducting behavior increasing from 0.0 to 0.2 V and a feature of a negative differential resistance effect under bias voltage in the 0.25–0.5 V range. These results suggest that extended 1D/2D defects in graphane-graphene hybrid platforms could be properly exploited for electronic applications in solid-state chemically gated graphene field-effect transistor.