University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Development of spintronics devices and Type 1 heterojunctions from graphene nanoribbon superlattices

Agarwal, Peeyush

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Peeyush_Agarwal.pdf

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/45616

Description

Title
Development of spintronics devices and Type 1 heterojunctions from graphene nanoribbon superlattices
Author(s)
Agarwal, Peeyush
Issue Date
2013-08-22T16:55:32Z
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Ertekin, Elif
Department of Study
Mechanical Sci & Engineering
Discipline
Mechanical Engineering
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
M.S.
Degree Level
Thesis
Date of Ingest
2013-08-22T16:55:32Z
Keyword(s)
  • graphene
  • armchair nanoribbon
  • superlattices
  • heterojunctions
  • spintronics
Abstract
Graphene physics and edge effects have a substantial influence on the electronic structure of graphene based nanomaterials. In this work, a detailed investigation of the edge effects of graphene nanoribbon superlattices is implemented in order to guide the discovery, design, and development of novel electronic devices. Graphene nanoribbon superlattices are low-dimensional carbon materials that are formed on making junctions with different graphene nanoribbons as components. This leads to a variety of interesting properties as the component ribbons have differing band structures, and edge effects lead to interesting physical applications. Using Density Functional Theory (DFT), we calculate quasiparticle bandgaps, projected density of states and other electronic structure properties to find that based on the superlattice topology, we can form Type 1 heterojunctions and materials with applications in spintronics. These results were used in conjunction with a nearest-neighbor tight-binding approach to differentiate between three structures formed from graphene nanoribbon superlattices with different interface regions. It was found that slight variations in the interface configuration and structure can result in Type 1 heterojunctions whose behavior could be predicted from a simple 1D effective mass model, or devices with localized magnetism at the interface sites with potential applications in spintronics. For devices with magnetic interfaces, we show the possibility of forming ferrimagnetic and anti-ferromagnetic materials systems and their possible application areas. We also explain the trends in total and absolute magnetism for these superlattice as parameters of the system considered.
Graduation Semester
2013-08
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/45616
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2013 Peeyush Agarwal

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