December 6, 2011 11:8 WSPC/147-MPLB S0217984911500047 1–5

Modern Physics Letters B

Vol. 26, No. 1 (2012) 1150004 (5 pages)
c World Scientific Publishing Company

DOI: 10.1142/S0217984911500047

COMPACT FORMULAE FOR NUMBER OF CONDUCTION

CHANNELS IN VARIOUS TYPES OF GRAPHENE
NANORIBBONS AT VARIOUS TEMPERATURES
by STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK on 05/14/13. For personal use only.
Mod. Phys. Lett. B 2012.26. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com

SAEED HAJI NASIRI

Department of Electrical Engineering, Science and Research Branch,
Islamic Azad University, Tehran 1477893855, Iran
s.nasiri@qiau.ac.ir

RAHIM FAEZ
Department of Electrical Engineering, Sharif University of Technology,
Tehran 1458889694, Iran
faez@sharif.edu

MOHAMMAD KAZEM MORAVVEJ-FARSHI∗

Advanced Devices Simulation Lab (ADSL), Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Tarbiat Modares University, P. O. Box 14115-194, Tehran 1411713116, Iran
farshi k@modares.ac.ir

Received 8 July 2011

Revised 20 August 2011

We present two compact analytic formulae for calculating the channel number in graphene
nanoribbons (GNRs), in terms of GNRs’ width and Fermi energy. Numerical data ob-
tained from these analytic formulae fit those obtained numerically from the exact for-
mula, with accuracies within 1%. Using appropriate fit parameters, the compact formulae
are valid for zigzag, armchair-metallic, and armchair-semiconducting GNRs, at room,
liquid nitrogen, and liquid helium temperatures (i.e. 300, 77 and 4.2 K)

Keywords: Graphene; nanoribbon; conducting channel.

1. Introduction
A recent development in science and technology of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs)
have stimulated major interests in their potential applications, particularly as ap-
propriate media for transistors’ channel and interconnects.1 – 8 Since each GNR
can be considered as an unrolled single wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT), most of
GNRs’ electronic properties are similar to those of SWCNT. Depending on its ge-
ometry, GNR can be either metallic or semiconducting.4,9,10 In a high-quality sheet

∗ Corresponding author.

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S. H. Nasiri, R. Faez & M. K. Moravvej-Farshi

of graphene, carriers’ mean free path (MFP) can be as long as λ = 1 µm, the ther-
mal conductivity can be as large as 3–5×103 W/mK, and it is capable of conducting
current densities as high as 108 (A/cm2 ).5 Moreover, its electrical conductivity is
a linearly increasing function of temperature beyond T = 300 K.6,11 The major
advantage of GNR over CNT is its more straightforward fabrication processes.7
One of the major physical parameters of GNRs that plays an important role in
calculating the quantum resistance and capacitance, the scattering resistance, and
the kinetic inductance in modeling graphene nanoribbon interconnects and transis-
tors is the number of the conduction channel in each ribbon. The existing formula
that depends on the ribbon’s width and Fermi energy as well as the temperature,10
by STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK on 05/14/13. For personal use only.

is relatively complicated and should be solved iteratively. Aim of this work is to

Mod. Phys. Lett. B 2012.26. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com

present an approximate closed form formula by which one can calculate the ribbon’s
channel number by an ordinary calculator with an excellent accuracy.

2. Modeling
Quantum confinement due nanoscale width of a GNR (W ) introduces finite num-
bers of quantized sub-bands of energy in the conduction and valence bands. Con-
tributions from all electrons in all nC conduction sub-bands and all holes in all nV
valence sub-bands in a GNR of known Fermi energy EF , at a given temperature T ,
add up to introduce a physical constant known as the conducting channel Nch :10
XnC nV
X
Nch = [e(Ej −EF )/kT + 1]−1 + [e(Ej +EF )/kT + 1]−1 (1)
j=0 j=0

where EF , k, and T are the Fermi energy, Boltzmann constant, and temperature,
respectively; and Ej represent the jth sub-band in conduction/valence band that
is given by the following for various chiralities:7

 (j − δj0 /2 + 1/2) zigzag
hvF 
Ej = j armchair-metalic (2)
2W 
(j + 1/3) armchair-semiconducting


where δj0 equals one for j = 0 and zero otherwise. Number of the GNR’s conduct-
ing channels is the most critical physical constant used in calculation of physical
parameters such as quantum resistance, quantum capacitance, and kinetic induc-
tance useful in almost all analytical and numerical analysis of GNR transistors and
interconnects.
Figure 1 illustrates the numerical data obtained for Nch in zigzag-GNR [Fig. 1(a)],
armchair-metallic-GNR [Fig. 1(b)], and armchair-semiconducting GNR [Fig. 1(c)]
as a function of W , for various EF and at room temperature.
Using a standard numerical data fitting procedure with a surface fitting tool, we
have tested the original numerical data, illustrated by lines in Fig. 1, with various
standard mathematical expressions. We have realized that the most appropriate
mathematical expression that could fit these data with minimum error is a mixed

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Compact Formulae for Number of Conduction Channels

by STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK on 05/14/13. For personal use only.
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Fig. 1. Number of conducting channels as a function of GNR width, for various Fermi energies
calculated for (a) zigzag GNR (b) armchair-metallic GNR and (c) armchair-semiconducting GNR.
Lines represent the data obtained by the exact formula (1). Circles represent the data obtained
from the compact analytic formulae (3).

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S. H. Nasiri, R. Faez & M. K. Moravvej-Farshi

Table 1. Fit parameters (a0 to a5 ) used in calculating the number of conducting channels in
various types of GNRs of Fermi energy (EF > 0) and with (W ), at T = 300, 77, and 4.2 K.

Zigzag Armchair-metallic Armchair-semiconducting

Temperature (K)
Parameter 300 77 4.2 300 77 4.2 300 77 4.2 Unit

a0 (×10 −2
) 124.4 115.3 112.8 4.148 8.35 44.32 −49.38 −74.72 −55.68 —
a1 (×10−3 ) −16.96 −15.63 −15.59 −0.4644 1.332 −0.1139 3.207 5.332 −0.1139 nm−1
a2 (×10−6 ) 75.17 61.01 53 −15.78 7.329 55.41 5.714 8.08 55.41 nm−2
a3 −5.031 −5.007 −4.965 −0.3067 −0.3851 0.1552 0.5501 1.593 0.1552 eV−1
a4 1.225 1.226 1.229 1.201 1.202 1.186 1.194 1.187 1.186 (nm-eV)−1
by STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK on 05/14/13. For personal use only.

a5 5.122 5.265 5.104 0.3724 0.4954 2.906 −0.2755 −0.7368 2.906 eV−2
Mod. Phys. Lett. B 2012.26. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com

Table 2. Fit parameters (b0 to b2 ) used in calculating the number of conducting channels in
various types of GNRs of Fermi energy EF = 0 and with W , at T = 4.2, 77, and 300 K.

Zigzag Armchair-metallic Armchair-semiconducting

Temperature (K)
Parameter 300 77 4.2 300 77 4.2 300 77 4.2 Unit
b0 1.94 2 2 0.806 0 0 −0.322 0 0 —
b1 (×10−3 ) 0.297 0 0 19.86 0 0 38.99 0 0 nm−1
b2 (×10−5 ) 22.9 0 0 14.8 0 0 2.535 0 0 nm−2

polynomial expression in terms of ribbon’s width (W ) and Fermi energy (EF ) for
a given temperature (T ). In order to find the best fits with acceptable errors of less
than 1%, the sum square errors (SSEs) and root mean square errors (RMSEs) are
both kept minimized. As a result, we have found that Nch can be approximated
by two quadratic formulae; one in terms of W and EF with six fit parameters (for
EF 6= 0) and the other one solely in terms of W with three fit parameters (for
EF = 0). Both formulae fit the exact numerical data with negligible errors of less
than 1%, expressed as:
a0 + a1 W + a2 W 2 + a3 EF + a4 W EF + a5 EF2
(
for EF > 0 ,
Nch (W, EF ) = (3)
b0 + b1 W + b2 W 2 for EF = 0 .
Open circles in Fig. 1 illustrate the numerical data obtained from Eq. (3). We have
repeated the procedure for T = 77 K as well as 4.2 K. Tables 1 and 2 show the fit
parameters a0 to a5 and b0 to b2 for all three types of GNRs for T = 300, 77, and
4.2 K.

3. Conclusion
We have reported two approximate compact formulae by which one can calculate
number of the conducting channels in various types of GNRs, as a function of their

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Compact Formulae for Number of Conduction Channels

widths and Fermi energies at temperatures T = 4.2, 77 and 300 K, quite accurately.
Using appropriate fit parameters, both formulae fit the exact numerical data for
zigzag and metallic/semiconducting GNRs of widths 0 < W ≤ 100 nm, one for
Fermi energies of 0.1 ≤ EF ≤ 0.5 eV and the other one for EF = 0. The fit
accuracies for both formulae are less than 1%.

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