Thermally-Limited Current Carrying Ability of Graphene Nanoribbons

Abstract

We investigate high-field transport in graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) on SiO2, up to breakdown. The maximum current density is limited by self-heating, but can reach >3 mA/um for GNRs ~15 nm wide. Comparison with larger, micron-sized graphene devices reveals that narrow GNRs benefit from 3D heat spreading into the SiO2, which enables their higher current density. GNRs also benefit from lateral heat flow to the contacts in short devices (< ~0.3 um), which allows extraction of a median GNR thermal conductivity (TC), ~80 W/m/K at 20 C across our samples, dominated by phonons. The TC of GNRs is an order of magnitude lower than that of micron-sized graphene on SiO2, suggesting strong roles of edge and defect scattering, and the importance of thermal dissipation in small GNR devices.

this version (v3) is very similar to that ultimately published in PRL

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• Two-Dimensional TaSe2 Metallic Crystals: Spin-Orbit Scattering Length and Breakdown Current Density
• Variability Effects in Graphene: Challenges and Opportunities for Device Engineering and Applications
• Theoretical analysis of high-field transport in graphene on a substrate
• Effects of electron-phonon interaction on thermal and electrical transport through molecular nano-conductors
• Substrate-induced reduction of graphene thermal conductivity
• Nonlocal Drag Thermoelectricity Generated by Ferroelectric Heterostructures
• The heat equation for nanoconstrictions in 2D materials with Joule self-heating
• Thermal Transport in Graphene and Graphene Multilayers
• Substrate-Dependence of Monolayer MoS${}_2$ Thermal Conductivity and Thermal Boundary Conductance