Analytical Tight-binding Approach for Ballistic Transport through Armchair Graphene Ribbons: Exact Solutions for Propagation through Step-like and Barrier-like Potentials

Based on a tight-binding approximation, we present analytical solutions for the wavefunction and propagation velocity of an electron in armchair graphene ribbons. The derived expressions are used for computing the transmission coefficients through step-like and barrier-like potentials. Our analytical solutions predict a new kind of transmission resonances for one-mode propagation in semiconducting ribbons. Contrary to the Klein paradox in graphene, this approach shows that backscattering for gapless mode is possible. In consistence with a higher order $\bf{k\cdot p}$ method, the backscattering probabilities vary with the square of the applied potential in the low-energy limit. We also demonstrate that gapless-mode propagation through a potential step in armchair ribbons can be described by the same through-step relation as that for an undimerized 1D chain of identical atoms.