Electrical transport across metal/two-dimensional carbon junctions: Edge versus side contacts

• Published in: AIP advances Vol. 2; no. 1; pp. 012132 - 012132-12
• Main Authors: Wu, Yihong, Wang, Ying, Wang, Jiayi, Zhou, Miao, Zhang, Aihua, Zhang, Chun, Yang, Yanjing, Hua, Younan, Xu, Baoxi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: AIP Publishing LLC 01-03-2012
• ISSN: 2158-3226; 2158-3226
• DOI: 10.1063/1.3684617

Metal/two-dimensional carbon junctions are characterized by using a nanoprobe in an ultrahigh vacuum environment. Significant differences were found in bias voltage (V) dependence of differential conductance (dI/dV) between edge- and side-contact; the former exhibits a clear linear relationship (i.e., dI/dV ∝ V), whereas the latter is characterized by a nonlinear dependence, dI/dV ∝ V3/2. Theoretical calculations confirm the experimental results, which are due to the robust two-dimensional nature of the carbon materials under study. Our work demonstrates the importance of contact geometry in graphene-based electronic devices.