  Due to their unique electrical properties, graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) show
great promise as the building blocks of novel electronic devices. However,
these properties are strongly dependent on the geometry of the edges of the
graphene devices. Thus far only zigzag and armchair edges have been extensively
studied. However, several other self passivating edge reconstructions are
possible, and were experimentally observed. Here we utilize the Nonequilibrium
Green's Function (NEGF) technique in conjunction with tight binding methods to
model quantum transport through armchair, zigzag, and several other
self-passivated edge reconstructions. In addition we consider the
experimentally relevant cases of mixed edges, where random combinations of
possible terminations exist on a given GNR boundary. We find that transport
through GNR's with self-passivating edge reconstructions is governed by the
sublattice structure of the edges, in a manner similar to their parent zigzag
or armchair configurations. Furthermore, we find that the reconstructed
armchair GNR's have a larger band gap energy than pristine armchair edges and
are more robust against edge disorder. These results offer novel insights into
the transport in GNRs with realistic edges and are thus of paramount importance
in the development of GNR based devices.
