Inhomogeneous linear responses and transport in armchair graphene nanoribbons in the presence of elastic scattering

Abstract Within linear-response theory we derive a response function that thoroughly accounts for the influence of elastic scattering and is valid beyond the long-wavelength limit. We use the theory to evaluate the polarization function and the conductivity in metallic armchair graphene nanoribbons in the Lindhard approximation for intra-band and inter-band transitions and for a relaxation time τ that is not constant. We obtain a logarithmic behaviour in the scattering-independent polarization function not only for intra-band transitions, as is usually the case for one-dimensional systems, but also for inter-band transitions. Modifying the screening wave vector and the impurity density in the long-wavelength limit strongly influences the relaxation time. In contrast, for large wave vectors, this modification leads to a conservative value of τ . We show that the imaginary part of the impurity-dependent conductivity varies with the wave vector while its scattering-independent part exists only for a single value of the wave vector.