Impurity effects on polaron dynamics in graphene nanoribbons

The impurity effects on the dynamics of polarons in armchair graphene nanoribbons are numerically investigated in the scope of a two-dimensional tight-binding approach with lattice relaxation. The results show that the presence of an impurity changes significantly the net charge distribution associated to the polaron structure. Moreover, the interplay between external electric field and the local impurities plays the role of drastically modifying the polaron dynamics. Interestingly, nanoribbons containing mobile polarons are noted to take place even when considering high impurity levels, which is associated with the highly conductive character of the graphene nanoribbons. This investigation may enlighten the understanding of the charge transport mechanism in carbon-based nanomaterials.