Quantum conductance of armchair graphene nanopores with edge impurities

The quantum conductance of armchair graphene nanopores (aGNPs) with edge impurities is investigated using the tight-binding model and non-equilibrium Green's function method. We find that aGNPs are particularly interesting since their transmission spectra can be easily tuned by pore-edge shaping to produce a variety of electronic transport characteristics. We first examine the local density of states at individual impurity sites. We then study the quantum conductance of aGNPs with various transmission spectra in response to perturbations to on-site energies and hopping coefficients of edge atoms. Insights into transport properties of aGNPs are provided and implications of these findings for designing aGNP devices in interconnection and sensing applications are discussed. (C) 2013 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.