Science Daily August 15, 2023
Graphene nanoribbons synthesized using bottom-up approaches can be structured with atomic precision, allowing their physical properties to be precisely controlled. For applications in quantum technology, the manipulation of single charges, spins or photons is required. However, achieving this at the level of single graphene nanoribbons is experimentally challenging due to the difficulty of contacting individual nanoribbons, particularly on-surface synthesized ones. An international team of researchers (Switzerland, UK, Germany, China) has attached electrodes to individual atomically precise nanoribbons paving the way for precise characterization of the ribbons and their possible use in quantum technology. The approach relied on the self-aligned nature of both nanotubes, which had diameters as small as 1 nm, and the nanoribbon growth on their respective growth substrates. The resulting nanoribbon–nanotube devices exhibited quantum transport phenomena—including Coulomb blockade, excited states of vibrational origin and Franck–Condon blockade—that indicated the contacting of individual graphene nanoribbons… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Multigate 9-AGNR transistors with SWNT electrodes. Credit: Nature Electronics (2023)