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Low-energy model for doped graphene nanoribbons

J. Ferrer1,2,3, A. García-Fuente1,2, Y. Yang3, S. Volosheniuk3, and H. S. J. van der Zant3

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Phys. Rev. B 114, 115115 – Published 17 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/wlvl-gxxf

Abstract

In this article we analyze the many-body behavior of freestanding doped graphene nanoribbons where the chemical potential lies inside the bulk single-particle bands. We perform an exact mapping from both an extended and an on-site Hubbard model of the ribbons to a Kanamori model, which includes ferromagnetic exchange and pair-hopping interactions. We determine the resulting Coulomb matrix elements analytically, and identify their scaling behavior as a function of ribbon width and length. We propose a low-energy version of the Kanamori Hamiltonian to address the response of the ribbons to external fields, with a view to their use as transport channels in nanoelectronics. We find that the model and the proposed ribbon parameters can produce open-shell, high-spin, many-body states that can lead to shell- and spin-blockade responses.

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Phys. Rev. B 114, 115115– Published 17 August, 2026
  • Received 30 October 2025
  • Revised 28 May 2026
  • Accepted 28 July 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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