Investigation of ripple-limited low-field mobility in large-scale graphene nanoribbons

Abstract

Combining molecular dynamics and quantum transport simulations, we study the degradation of mobility in graphene nanoribbons caused by substrate-induced ripples. First, the atom coordinates of large-scale structures are relaxed such that surface properties are consistent with those of graphene on a substrate. Then, the electron current and low-field mobility of the resulting non-flat nanoribbons are calculated within the Non-equilibrium Green's Function formalism in the coherent transport limit. An accurate tight-binding basis coupling the σ- and π-bands of graphene is used for this purpose. It is found that the presence of ripples decreases the mobility of graphene nanoribbons on SiO2 below 3000 cm2/Vs, which is comparable to experimentally reported values.