Partially unzipped carbon nanotubes as magnetic field sensors

S. Costamagna, A. Schulz, L. Covaci, F. Peeters
2012 Applied Physics Letters  
The conductance, G(E), through graphene nanoribbons (GNR) connected to a partially unzipped carbon nanotube (CNT) is studied in the presence of an external magnetic field applied parallel to the long axis of the tube by means of non-equilibrium Green's function technique. We consider (z)igzag and (a)rmchair CNTs that are partially unzipped to form aGNR/zCNT/aGNR or zGNR/aCNT/zGNR junctions. We find that the inclusion of a longitudinal magnetic field affects the electronic states only in the CNT
more » ... region, leading to the suppression of the conductance at low energies. Unlike previous studies, for the zGNR/aCNT/zGNR junction in zero field, we find a sharp dip in the conductance as the energy approaches the Dirac point and we attribute this non-trivial behavior to the peculiar band dispersion of the constituent subsystems. We demonstrate that both types of junctions can be used as magnetic field sensors.
doi:10.1063/1.4726039 fatcat:yb5z3pzgrfc5zdft7qduxset2i