Crossover point of the field effect transistor and interconnect applications in turbostratic multilayer graphene nanoribbon channel

The electrical transport properties of a turbostratic multilayer graphene nanoribbon (GNR) with various number of layers (1–8 layers) were investigated using a field effect transistor with a single GNR channel. In the turbostratic multilayer GNR with 5 layers or less, the carrier mobility and I(on)/I(off) ratio in the FETs were improved by slightly increasing the conductance with increasing the number of layers, meaning that the excellent semiconducting characteristic. The improvement of the carrier transport properties promotes by the turbostratic stacking structure. In the turbostratic multilayer GNR with 6 layers or more, although the I(on)/I(off) ratio degraded, the conductance extremely improved with increasing the number of layers. This indicates that the turbostratic multilayer GNR with thicker number of layers becomes the significantly lower resistivity wire as a metallic characteristic. We revealed that the crossover point of the physical properties between the semiconducting and metallic characteristics is determined by the strength to screen the surrounding environment effects such as charged impurity on the substrate. Our comprehensive investigation provides a design guidance for the various electrical device applications of GNR materials.