Disentangling morphology and conductance in amorphous graphene

Abstract

Amorphous graphene or amorphous monolayer carbon (AMC) is a family of carbon films that exhibit a surprising sensitivity of electronic conductance to morphology. We combine deep learning-enhanced simulation techniques with percolation theory to analyze three morphologically distinct mesoscale AMCs. Our approach avoids the pitfalls of applying periodic boundary conditions to these fundamentally aperiodic systems or equating crystalline inclusions with conducting sites. We reproduce the previously reported dependence of charge conductance on morphology and explore the limitations of partial morphology descriptors in witnessing conductance properties. Finally, we perform crystallinity analysis of conductance networks along the electronic energy spectrum and show that they metamorphose from being localized on crystallites at band edges to localized on defects around the Fermi energy opening the possibility of control through gate voltage.