Band depopulation of graphene nanoribbons induced by chemical gating with amino groups

Abstract

The electronic properties of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) can be precisely tuned by chemical doping. Here we demonstrate that amino (NH₂) functional groups attached at the edges of chiral GNRs (chGNRs) can efficiently gate the chGNRs and lead to the valence band (VB) depopulation on a metallic surface. The NH₂-doped chGNRs are grown by on-surface synthesis on Au(111) using functionalized bianthracene precursors. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy resolves that the NH₂ groups significantly upshift the bands of chGNRs, causing the Fermi level crossing of the VB onset of chGNRs. Through density functional theory simulations we confirm that the hole-doping behavior is due to an upward shift of the bands induced by the edge NH₂ groups.