Partially unzipped carbon nanotubes as magnetic field sensors

Abstract

The conductance, $G(E)$, through graphene nanoribbons (GNR) connected to a partially unzipped carbon nanotube (CNT) is studied in the presence of an external magnetic field applied parallel to the long axis of the tube by means of non-equilibrium Green's function technique. We consider (z)igzag and (a)rmchair CNTs that are partially unzipped to form aGNR/zCNT/aGNR or zGNR/aCNT/zGNR junctions. We find that the inclusion of a longitudinal magnetic field affects the electronic states only in the CNT region, leading to the suppression of the conductance at low energies. Unlike previous studies, for the zGNR/aCNT/zGNR junction in zero field, we find a sharp dip in the conductance as the energy approaches the Dirac point and we attribute this non-trivial behavior to the peculiar band dispersion of the constituent subsystems. We demonstrate that both types of junctions can be used as magnetic field sensors.