Credit: Image courtesy of Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature Nanotechnology, © 2015
The width of a graphene nanoribbon determines its electronic properties, but controlling that width at the atomic scale is a challenge. Graphene nanoribbon width has been controllably modulated within individual nanoribbons using molecular building blocks as shown in this scanning tunneling microscopy image. The lower magnification image (inset) shows multiple nanoribbons.