Electronic transport of folded graphene nanoribbons

We investigate the electronic transport properties of a folded graphene nanoribbon with monolayer nanoribbon contacts. We consider two possible foldings: either the nanoribbon can be folded onto itself in the shape of a hairpin with the nanoribbon leads at a 0° angle, or the monolayer contacts have different directions, forming a 60° angle. The system is described by a single π-bandπ-band nearest-neighbor tight-binding Hamiltonian taking into account curvature effects. We have found that for the case of a nanoribbon folded over itself the conductance oscillates from almost zero and a finite value depending on the coupling between contacts, whereas in the 60° angle folding the conductance is only slightly perturbed, allowing for the connection of graphene nanoelectronic components in a variety of geometries.

► We have studied the transport properties of folded graphene ribbons. ► The conductance of folded ribbons at 0° oscillates between zero and a finite value. ► The conductance of ribbons folded at 60° is only slightly perturbed with respect to the pristine case.