Directional Control of the Electronic and Transport Properties of Graphynes

The Dirac energy dispersion, presented by graphene and other 2D materials, provides exquisite properties that are very useful for the design of new devices. A new class of 2D materials consisting only of carbon atoms and that presents Dirac cones in its electronic structure are the graphynes. Through electronic transport results based on first-principles calculation combined with nonequilibrium Green’s functions, we show that the conductivity of the α, β, and 6,6,12-graphyne is higher than that for graphene. For 6,6,12-graphyne we predict that via an anisotropic strain both the electronic energy gap and the current can be modulated, presenting a strong directional dependence of its properties.