Family-Dependent Rectification Characteristics in Ultra-Short Graphene Nanoribbon p-n Junctions

We present the first transport property investigation of a-few-nm-long armchair graphene nanoribbon (AGNR) p-n junctions by using first-principles method. Intriguingly, family-dependent rectification is observed. To be specific, traditional rectification effect in the forward direction is observed in the AGNR p-n junctions with 3n and 3n+2 widths whereas reverse rectification effect is observed in the AGNR p-n junctions with 3n+1 width. The analysis of the spatial distribution of molecular projected self-consistent Hamiltonian eigenstates and the projected density of states give an insight of the observed results.