Tunable thermoelectric properties in bended graphene nanoribbons**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61401153) and the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province, China (Grant Nos. 2015JJ2050 and 14JJ3126).

Abstract

The ballistic thermoelectric properties in bended graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) are systematically investigated by using atomistic simulation of electron and phonon transport. We find that the electron resonant tunneling effect occurs in the metallic–semiconducting linked ZZ-GNRs (the bended GNRs with zigzag edge leads). The electron-wave quantum interference effect occurs in the metallic–metallic linked AA-GNRs (the bended GNRs with armchair edge leads). These different physical mechanisms lead to the large Seebeck coefficient S and high electron conductance in bended ZZ-GNRs/AA-GNRs. Combined with the reduced lattice thermal conduction, the significant enhancement of the figure of merit ZT is predicted. Moreover, we find that the ZTmax (the maximum peak of ZT) is sensitive to the structural parameters. It can be conveniently tuned by changing the interbend length of bended GNRs. The magnitude of ZT ranges from the 0.15 to 0.72. Geometry-controlled ballistic thermoelectric effect offers an effective way to design thermoelectric devices such as thermocouples based on graphene.