The first-principles study of oscillating rectifying performance in nanoribbon-chain-carbon nanotube junctions

Electronic transport properties of armchair graphene nanoribbon and capped carbon nanotube junctions, covalently bridged by carbon atomic chains with different numbers of carbon atoms, are investigated. The first-principles calculations based on non-equilibrium Green's functions with the density-functional theory show that their I-V characteristics display odd-even effects and rectifying behaviors show obvious oscillations, namely, different bond patterns for even- and odd-numbered carbon chains affect the contact bonds, charge transfer, density of states, evolutions of molecular orbitals, and rectifying performance. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.