Electronic Conduction Through Monolayer Amorphous Carbon Nano-Junctions
Abstract
In molecular electronic conduction, exotic lattice morphologies often give rise to exotic behaviors. Among 2D systems, graphene is a notable example. Recently, a stable amorphous version of graphene called Monolayer Amorphous Carbon (MAC) was synthesized. MAC poses a new set of questions regarding the effects of disorder on conduction. In this Letter, we perform ensemble-level computational analysis of the coherent electronic transmission through MAC nano-fragments in search of defining characteristics. Our analysis, relying on a semi-empirical Hamiltonian (Pariser-Parr-Pople) and Landauer theory, showed that states near the Fermi energy () in MAC inherit partial characteristics of analogous surface states in graphene nano-fragments. Away from , current is carried by a set of delocalized states which transition into a subset of insulating interior states at the band edges. Finally, we also found that quantum interference between the frontier orbitals is a common feature among MAC nano-fragments.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2111.05837,
title = {Electronic Conduction Through Monolayer Amorphous Carbon Nano-Junctions},
author = {Nicolas Gastellu and Michael Kilgour and Lena Simine},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2111.05837},
year = {2021}
}