UC Berkeley

Advancements in on-surface materials synthesis have led to the development of atomically precise graphene nanoribbons (GNRs). Bottom-up synthesized GNRs have promising electronic properties for high performance field effect transistors (FETs) and ultra-low power devices such as tunneling FETs. However, the short length, wide band gap, and random orientation of GNRs have impeded the fabrication of devices with the expected performance and switching behavior. In this dissertation, progress towards integration of bottom-up synthesized GNRs into electronic devices is presented. The understanding of GNR growth and band structure is surveyed and analyzed with a focus on the implications on device yield and performance. The development of a device fabrication strategy for on-surface synthesized materials is shown, with a focus on the fabrication of high on-current and high on-off ratio 9-atom wide GNR FETs. Furthermore, device fabrication is developed for FETs with parallel arrays of GNRs transferred from single crystal Au(788), which greatly improves device yield. Finally, theoretical charge transport in GNR heterostructures is employed to demonstrate exotic device behavior such as ultra-sharp switching and negative differential resistance. The path towards state-of-the-art GNR-based logic circuits is charted in this work.