Robust Contact by Direct Formation of CAu Bond in Suspended Armchair Graphene Nanoribbon

To visualize the intrinsic band structure of armchair graphene nanoribbon and verify theories, the terminus is covalently bonded to Au-coated tip. Tunneling spectroscopies with these suspended nanoribbons exhibit symmetric onsets of conduction and valence bands around zero bias. From these results, a value of 2.78 eV for the band gap is determined which agrees very well with theoretical calculations. Interestingly, the formation of C—Au bond suppresses Schottky contact resistance which is one of the essential prerequisites for future nanoribbon electronics. For further details, see article number 2400192 by Abdou Hassanien. This article (as well as article 2400189 in this issue) is also part of the Virtual Issue “Electronic Properties of Novel Materials”.