Generic suppression of conductance quantization of interacting electrons in graphene nanoribbons in a perpendicular magnetic field

The effects of electron interaction on the magnetoconductance of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) are studied within the Hartree approximation. We find that a perpendicular magnetic field leads to a suppression instead of an expected improvement of the quantization. This suppression is traced back to interaction-induced modifications of the band structure leading to the formation of compressible strips in the middle of GNRs. It is also shown that the hard-wall confinement combined with electron interaction generates overlaps between forward and backward propagating states, which may significantly enhance backscattering in realistic GNRs. The relation to available experiments is discussed.Original Publication:Artsem Shylau, Igor Zozoulenko, H Xu and T Heinzel, Generic suppression of conductance quantization of interacting electrons in graphene nanoribbons in a perpendicular magnetic field, 2010, PHYSICAL REVIEW B, (82), 12, 121410.http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.82.121410Copyright: American Physical Societyhttp://www.aps.org