Electronic specific heat of nanographite ribbons

Abstract

The electronic specific heat of nanographite ribbons exhibits rich temperature dependence, mainly owing to the special band structures. The thermal property strongly depends on the geometric structures, the edge structure and the width. There is a simple relation between the ribbon width and the electronic specific heat for the metallic or semiconducting armchair ribbons. However, it is absent for the zigzag ribbons. The metallic armchair ribbons exhibit linear temperature dependence. The semiconducting armchair ribbons exhibit composite behavior of power and exponential functions. As for the zigzag ribbons, the temperature dependence of the specific heat is proportional to T 1− p . The value of p quickly increases from 1 2 to 1 as the ribbon width gradually grows. The zigzag ribbons might be the first system which exhibits the novel temperature dependence. The nanographite ribbons differ from an infinite graphite sheet, which illustrates that the finite-size effects are significant.