Effects of different tailoring graphene electrodes on the rectification and negative differential resistance of molecular devices

Abstract

The electronic transport properties of oligo p-phenylenevinylene (OPV) molecule sandwiched with symmetrical or asymmetric tailoring graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) electrodes are investigated by nonequilibrium Green’s function in combination with density functional theory. The results show that different tailored GNRs electrodes can modulate the current–voltage characteristic of molecular devices. The rectifying behavior can be observed with respect to electrodes, and the maximum rectification ratio can reach to 14.2 in the asymmetric AC–ZZ GNRs and ZZ–AC–ZZ GNRs electrodes system. In addition, the obvious negative differential resistance can be observed in the symmetrical AC-ZZ GNRs system.