Effect of number of carbon atoms on the electron transport properties of carbon chain-graphene junctions

Abstract

Abstract Using nonequilibrium Green’s functions in combination with density-functional theory, we investigate the electronic transport properties of carbon chains covalently connected with two bear armchair graphene electrodes. The results show that the transport properties are obviously dependent on the odd and even length chains located between graphene nanoribbons. For graphene nanoribbons connected to the chain with even chains, the negative differential resistance (NDR) is also observed in the I-V curves. The reason is that the even-odd effects are related to the connection structure between electrodes and carbon chains.