Scattering matrix approach to multichannel transport in many lead graphene nanoribbons

Multichannel analysis of graphene nanoribbons (GNR), often required for describing applications to practical devices, constitutes a heavy computational task, even in a simplified framework like that provided by discrete or nearest neighbour models. Scattering (S) matrix techniques, widely used for quantum transport in low dimensional systems and for the computation of electromagnetic fields, is shown here to provide a powerful formal platform for the analysis, and, in principle, the synthesis, of GNR multiport circuits. Periodic modes, solutions of GNR waveguides, are demonstrated to obey charge conservation and reciprocity constraints corresponding to unitary and symmetry properties of the S-matrix, under proper normalization conditions. We propose a systematic use of this approach to deal with problems such as scattering by lattice defects, the presence of external applied fields, crossing GNRs and T-junctions.