Tuning electronic structure of graphene via tailoring structure: Theoretical study

Electronic structures of graphene sheet with different defective patterns are investigated, based on the first principles calculations. We find that defective patterns can tune the electronic structures of the graphene significantly. Triangle patterns give rise to strongly localized states near the Fermi level, and hexagonal patterns open up band gaps in the systems. In addition, rectangular patterns, which feature networks of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) with either zigzag or armchair edges, exhibit semiconducting behaviors, where the band gap has an evident dependence on the width of the nanoribbons. For the networks of the GNRs, some special channels for electronic transport are predicted. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3437092]