We demonstrate that the one-dimensional (1D) transport channels that appear in the gap when graphene nanoroads are embedded in boron-nitride (BN) sheets are more robust when they are inserted at AB/BA grain boundaries. Our conclusions are based on ab-initio electronic structure calculations for a variety of different crystal orientations and bonding arrangements at the BN/C interfaces. This property is related to the valley-Hall conductivity present in the BN band structure and to the topologically protected kink states that appear in continuum Dirac models with position dependent masses.
@article{arxiv.1204.5210,
title = {Transport Properties of Graphene Nanoroads in Boron-Nitride Sheets},
author = {Jeil Jung and Zhenhua Qiao and Qian Niu and Allan H. MacDonald},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1204.5210},
year = {2012}
}