An ordered-disordered separated graphene nanoribbon: high thermoelectric performance

Abstract

Abstract The key requirement for an enhanced thermoelectric (TE) performance is the presence of asymmetry in transmission function. Focussing on this issue, we propose a unique idea to enhance TE performance in a graphene nanoribbon (GNR) that has not been explored so far to the best of our concern. In the present work, one part of the GNR is considered as a disordered region while the rest of the system is clean. Such an ordered-disordered separated structure yields more asymmetric transmission function over the conventional uniform disordered one. Finally, we include the effect of electron–electron (e–e) interaction to check whether it brings any non-trivial signature on TE performance. The e–e interaction is taken in the form of an on-site Hubbard model and we compute our results within a Hartree–Fock mean field approach. The results obtained in the present work exhibit quite remarkable TE performance along with some non-trivial features.