Tuning the electronic properties of monolayer graphene by the periodic aligned graphene nanoribbons

The 2pz tight-binding model has been used to investigate the electronic properties of ribbon–graphene hybrid systems. This system is constructed by zigzag graphene nanoribbons aligned periodically on monolayer graphene. It was found that for such systems the electronic properties would be strongly influenced by the geometric structure of graphene nanoribbons, such as the width and the period of the ribbons. In addition, the stacking arrangement between graphene nanoribbons and monolayer graphene also plays a dominant role in determining the band structures in the low-energy region. These geometric structure effects can be well understood through the density of state calculations. Such hybrid structures lead to interesting novel features, dissimilar from those of single layer graphene, and could serve as a platform for the studies of device applications.