Abstract
We study the electron transport in armchair graphene nanoribbon (AGNR) resonant tunneling diode (RTD) using square and V-shaped potential well profiles. We use non-equilibrium Green’s function formalism to analyze the transmission and I-V characteristics. Results show that an enhancement in the peak current (Ip
) can be obtained by reducing the well width (Ww
) or barrier width (Wb
). As Ww
decreases, Ip
shifts to a higher peak voltage (Vp
), while there is almost no change in Vp
with decreasing Wb
. It is gratifying to note that there is an enhancement in Ip
by about 1.6 times for a V-shaped well over a square well. Furthermore, in the case of a V-shaped well, the negative differential resistance occurs in a shorter voltage range, which may beneficial for ultra-fast switching and high-frequency signal generation. Our work anticipates the suitability of graphene, having better design flexibility, to develop ideally 2D RTDs for use in ultra-dense nano-electronic circuits and systems.