Density functional study on the increment of carrier mobility in armchair graphene nanoribbons induced by Stone-Wales defects.

Armchair graphene nanoribbons and their derived structures containing Stone-Wales defects are investigated using a self-consistent field crystal orbital method based on density functional theory. The investigation indicates that both the nanoribbons and the defective structures are semiconductors. A low concentration of middle Stone-Wales defects generally increases the carrier mobility, calculated using deformation potential theory, while edge Stone-Wales defects decrease it. The largest increment of the carrier mobility is as high as 170%, which is explained by the lighter carrier effective mass with crystal orbital analysis. This journal is © the Owner Societies 2011