Abstract
The performance limits of a multilayer graphene nanoribbon (GNR) field-effect transistor (FET) are assessed and compared with those of a monolayer GNRFET and a carbon nanotube (CNT) FET. The results show that with a thin high dielectric constant (high-κ) gate insulator and reduced interlayer coupling, a multilayer GNRFET can significantly outperform its CNT counterpart with a similar gate and bandgap in terms of the ballistic on-current. In the presence of optical phonon scattering, which has a short mean free path in the graphene-derived nanostructures, the advantage of the multilayer GNRFET is even more significant. Simulation results indicate that multilayer GNRs with incommensurate non-AB stacking and weak interlayer coupling are the best candidates for high-performance GNRFETs.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Novoselov, K. S.; Geim, A. K.; Morozov, S. V.; Jiang, D.; Zhang, Y.; Dubonos, S. V.; Grigorieva, I. V.; Firsov, A. A. Electric field effect in atomically thin carbon films. Science 2004, 306, 666–669.
Zhang, Y.; Tan, Y.; Stormer, H. L.; Kim, P. Experimental observation of the quantum Hall effect and Berry’s phase in graphene. Nature 2005, 438, 201–204.
Berger, C.; Song, Z.; Li, X.; Wu, X.; Brown, N.; Naud, C.; Mayou, D.; Li, T.; Hass, J.; Marchenkov, A. N.; Conrad, E. H.; First, P. N.; de Heer, W. A. Electronic confinement and coherence in patterned epitaxial graphene. Science 2006, 312, 1191–1196.
Li, X.; Wang, X.; Zhang, L.; Lee, S.; Dai, H. Chemically derived, ultrasmooth graphene nanoribbon semiconductors. Science 2008, 319, 1229–1232.
Lin, Y.; Perebeinos, V.; Chen, Z.; Avouris, P. Electrical observation of subband formation in graphene nanoribbons. Phys. Rev. B 2008, 78, 161409.
Wang, X.; Ouyang, Y.; Li, X.; Wang, H.; Guo, J.; Dai, H. Room-temperature all-semiconducting sub-10-nm graphene nanoribbon field-effect transistors. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2008, 100, 206803.
Ouyang, Y.; Wang, X.; Dai, H.; Guo, J. Carrier scattering in graphene nanoribbon field-effect transistors. Appl. Phys. Lett. 2008, 92, 243124.
Gunlycke, D.; Lawler, H. M.; White, C. T. Room-temperature ballistic transport in narrow graphene strips. Phys. Rev. B 2007, 75, 085418.
Ouyang, Y.; Yoon, Y.; Fodor, J. K.; Guo, J. Comparison of performance limits for carbon nanoribbon and carbon nanotube transistors. Appl. Phys. Lett. 2006, 89, 203107.
Rahman, A.; Jing Guo; Datta, S.; Lundstrom, M. Theory of ballistic nanotransistors. IEEE Trans. Electron Dev. 2003, 50, 1853–1864.
Chen, Z.; Appenzeller, J.; Knoch, J.; Lin, Y.; Avouris, P. The role of metal-nanotube contact in the performance of carbon nanotube field-effect transistors. Nano Lett. 2005, 5, 1497–1502.
Javey, A.; Tu, R.; Farmer, D. B.; Guo, J.; Gordon, R. G.; Dai, H. High performance n-type carbon nanotube field-effect transistors with chemically doped contacts. Nano Lett. 2005, 5, 345–348.
Jiao, L.; Zhang, L.; Wang, X.; Diankov, G.; Dai, H. Narrow graphene nanoribbons from carbon nanotubes. Nature 2009, 458, 877–880.
Kosynkin, D. V.; Higginbotham, A. L.; Sinitskii, A.; Lomeda, J. R.; Dimiev, A.; Price, B. K.; Tour, J. M. Longitudinal unzipping of carbon nanotubes to form graphene nanoribbons. Nature 2009, 458, 872–876.
Nakada, K.; Fujita, M.; Dresselhaus, G.; Dresselhaus, M. S. Edge state in graphene ribbons: Nanometer size effect and edge shape dependence. Phys. Rev. B 1996, 54, 17954.
Son, Y.; Cohen, M. L.; Louie, S. G. Energy gaps in graphene nanoribbons. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2006, 97, 216803.
Grüneis, A.; Attaccalite, C.; Wirtz, L.; Shiozawa, H.; Saito, R.; Pichler, T.; Rubio A. Tight-binding description of the quasiparticle dispersion of graphite and few-layer graphene. Phys. Rev. B 2008, 78, 205425.
Yao, Z.; Kane, C. L.; Dekker, C. High-field electrical transport in single-wall carbon nanotubes. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2000, 84, 2941–2944.
ITRS, International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors, http://www.itrs.net (accessed oct 2, 2009).
Chen, J.; Jang, C.; Xiao, S.; Ishigami, M.; Fuhrer, M. S. Intrinsic and extrinsic performance limits of graphene devices on SiO2. Nat. Nanotechnol. 2008, 3, 206–209.
Sui, Y.; Appenzeller, J. Screening and interlayer coupling in multilayer graphene field-effect transistors. Nano Lett. 2009, 9, 2973–2977.
Guo, J.; Yoon, Y.; Ouyang, Y. Gate electrostatics and quantum capacitance of graphene nanoribbons. Nano Lett. 2007, 7, 1935–1940.
Neophytou, N.; Paul, A.; Lundstrom, M.; Klimeck, G. Bandstructure effects in silicon nanowire electron transport. IEEE Trans. Electron Dev. 2008, 55, 1286–1297.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0 ), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
About this article
Cite this article
Ouyang, Y., Dai, H. & Guo, J. Projected performance advantage of multilayer graphene nanoribbons as a transistor channel material. Nano Res. 3, 8–15 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-010-1002-8
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-010-1002-8