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Abstract: Atomically-precise graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) have attracted significant interest from researchers worldwide, as they constitute an emerging class of quantum-designed materials of which the properties are tailored by controlling their width and edge structure during chemical synthesis. These remarkable properties include a largely tunable bandgap, spin polarized edge states and topologically-protected states. The major challenges toward their exploitation in quantum device applications include the reliable contacting single GNRs and the preservation of their intrinsic physical properties upon device integration. In this talk, I’ll present an overview of our recent efforts in the fabrication and characterization of nanoelectronics devices with GNRs as active material. To contact the GNRs, we have developed several multi-gate device architectures based on different electrodes geometries and materials. For example, we have also demonstrated the contacting of single GNRs using single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) electrodes. Here, we observe well-defined quantum transport phenomena, including Coulomb blockade, excited states, and Franck-Condon blockade. This work also paved the way for the observation of the first evidence for double quantum dot behavior in GNR-based devices. In addition, we have developed a strategy to contact h-BN encapsulated GNRs using metallic edge contacts for improving contact and reducing device footprint. Finally, we developed several device architectures based on graphene electrodes, including one with a dual-gate to determine the exact number of GNRs in the junction and identify devices that contain a single GNR. In the same study, we also demonstrated that GNRs can exhibit quantum dot behavior at temperatures as high as 250K.
