Nature of electron states and magneto-transport in a graphene geometry with a fractal distribution of holes

We investigate theoretically the spin-dependent electron transport in a Rashba quantum wire with rough edges. The charge and spin conductances are calculated as function of the electron energy and wire length by adopting the spin-resolved lattice Green function method. For a single disordered Rashba wire, it is found that the charge conductance quantization is destroyed by the edge disorder. However, a nonzero spin conductance can be generated and its amplitude can be manipulated by varying the wire length, which is attributed to the broken structure symmetries and the spin-dependent quantum interference induced by the rough boundaries. For a large ensemble of disordered Rashba wires, the average charge conductance decreases monotonically, however, the average spin conductance increases to a maximum value and then decreases, with increasing wire length. Further study shows that the influence of the rough edges on the charge and spin conductances can be eliminated by applying a perpendicular magnetic field to the wire. In addition, a very large magnitude of the spin conductance can be achieved when the electron energy lies between the two thresholds of each pair of subbands. These findings may not only benefit to further apprehend the transport properties of the Rashba low-dimensional systems but also provide some theoretical instructions to the application of spintronics devices.     

Chirality effect in disordered graphene ribbon junctions

We investigate the influence of edge chirality on the electronic transport in clean or disordered graphene ribbon junctions. By using the tight-binding model and the Landauer-Büttiker formalism, the junction conductance is obtained. In the clean sample, the zero-magnetic-field junction conductance is strongly chirality-dependent in both unipolar and bipolar ribbons, whereas the high-magnetic-field conductance is either chirality-independent in the unipolar or chirality-dependent in the bipolar ribbon. Furthermore, we study the disordered sample in the presence of magnetic field and find that the junction conductance is always chirality-insensitive for both unipolar and bipolar ribbons with adequate disorders. In addition, the disorder-induced conductance plateaus can exist in all chiral bipolar ribbons provided the disorder strength is moderate. These results suggest that we can neglect the effect of edge chirality in fabricating electronic devices based on the magnetotransport in a disordered graphene ribbon.     

Transport length scales in disordered graphene-based materials: strong localization regimes and dimensionality effects

We report on a numerical study of quantum transport in disordered two dimensional graphene and graphene nanoribbons. By using the Kubo and the Landauer approaches, transport length scales in the diffusive (mean free path and charge mobilities) and localized regimes (localization lengths) are computed, assuming a short range disorder (Anderson-type). The electronic systems are found to undergo a conventional Anderson localization in the zero-temperature limit, in agreement with localization scaling theory. Localization lengths in weakly disordered ribbons are found to strongly fluctuate depending on their edge symmetry, but always remain several orders of magnitude smaller than those computed for 2D graphene for the same disorder strength. This pinpoints the role of transport dimensionality and edge effects.     

Conductance of graphene superlattices with correlated disorder in velocity profiles

The propagation of massless Dirac fermion waves through a graphene system is studied in the presence of a long-range correlated disorder. The system consists of a graphene layer in which the Dirac fermions velocity is position-dependent. The velocity profile is multiform and assumed to be long-range correlated. The effect of disorder in the transmission probability through the system with different sizes is also studied. In addition, we show that the conductance of the system increases with increasing the correlation exponent values giving rise to a metallic phase. We obtain a phase transition diagram in which the critical correlation exponent depends strongly on disorder strength. We demonstrate that in the limit of large system size, the conductance fluctuations become independent of the correlation exponent and tend to a constant value.     

自旋轨道耦合作用下石墨烯pn结的电子输运性质

本文研究了自旋轨道耦合作用下石墨烯纳米带pn结的电子输运性质. 当粒子的入射能量处于pn结两端势能之间时, 粒子将会以隧穿的形式通过石墨烯pn结, 同时伴随着电子空穴转换. 电导随费米能的变化曲线呈不等高阶梯状, 并在费米能位于pn结两端能量中点时取得最大值. 随着石墨烯pn结长度的增加, 电导以指数形式衰减. 自旋轨道耦合作用导致的能隙会使电导显著减小, 而边缘态的粒子则可以几乎毫无阻碍地通过pn结. 本文用一个简单的子带隧穿模型解释了上述特征. 最后还研究了在pn转换区中掺入替位杂质的情况. 在弱杂质下, 电导随费米能变化的曲线将不再对称; 当杂质较强时, 仅边界态的形成的电导台阶能够保持.     

A high-efficiency spin polarizer based on edge and surface disordered silicene nanoribbons

Using the tight-binding formalism, we explore the effect of weak disorder upon the conductance of zigzag edge silicene nanoribbons (SiNRs), in the limit of phase-coherent transport. We find that the fashion of the conductance varies with disorder, and depends strongly on the type of disorder. Conductance dips are observed at the Van Hove singularities, owing to quasilocalized states existing in surface disordered SiNRs. A conductance gap is observed around the Fermi energy for both edge and surface disordered SiNRs, because edge states are localized. The average conductance of the disordered SiNRs decreases exponentially with the increase of disorder, and finally tends to disappear. The near-perfect spin polarization can be realized in SiNRs with a weak edge or surface disorder, and also can be attained by both the local electric field and the exchange field.     

金属Ni原子对石墨烯生长结构的影响

基于Material Studio软件平台,利用分子动力学方法,对Ni原子与石墨烯层状结构相互作用和晶体结构变化过程进行模拟分析,得到如下结论：低浓度Ni原子会吸附在石墨烯表面层沿边缘生长,活性从中心向边缘逐渐降低,高浓度的Ni原子会溶解到内层石墨烯中.当石墨烯层数增加,附着在表层石墨烯的Ni原子生长排列范围扩大,且在石墨烯表面形成的点阵排列被破坏,附着在内层石墨烯的Ni原子比表层石墨烯Ni原子排列更散乱,同时石墨烯生长结构逐渐出现弯曲;随着层数增多和Ni原子浓度增加,石墨烯的拉伸强度也随之增加,石墨烯生长缺陷的偏转角度也随之增大.通过计算以上结构的径向分布函数(RDF),验证了石墨烯长程有序到短程有序的结构变化过程.     

Numerical study of the spin-Hall conductance in the Luttinger model

We present the first numerical studies of the disorder effect on the recently proposed intrinsic spin-Hall conductance in a three dimensional lattice Luttinger model. The results show that the spin-Hall conductance remains finite in a wide range of disorder strength, with large fluctuations. The disorder-configuration-averaged spin-Hall conductance monotonically decreases with the increase of disorder strength and vanishes before the Anderson localization takes place. The finite-size effect is also discussed.     

Enhancement of subgap conductance in a graphene superconductor junction by valley polarization

We theoretically study the differential conductance of a graphene/graphene superconductor junction, where the valley polarization of Dirac electrons is considered in the nonsuperconducting region. It is shown that the subgap conductance will increase monotonically with the valley-polarization strength when the chemical potential μ is near the Dirac point μ≤ 3?(? is the superconducting gap), whereas it will decrease monotonically when μ is far away from the Dirac point, μ≥ 5?.The former case is induced by the specular Andreev reflection while the retro-reflection accounts for the later result. Our findings may shed light on the control of conductance of a graphene superconductor junction by valley polarization.     

Electronic transport and quantum hall effect in bipolar graphene p-n-p junctions

We have developed a device fabrication process to pattern graphene into nanostructures of arbitrary shape and control their electronic properties using local electrostatic gates. Electronic transport measurements have been used to characterize locally gated bipolar graphene p-n-p junctions. We observe a series of fractional quantum Hall conductance plateaus at high magnetic fields as the local charge density is varied in the p and n regions. These fractional plateaus, originating from chiral edge states equilibration at the p-n interfaces, exhibit sensitivity to interedge backscattering which is found to be strong for some of the plateaus and much weaker for other plateaus. We use this effect to explore the role of backscattering and estimate disorder strength in our graphene devices.     

准一维多链无序体系跳跃电导特性

在单电子紧束缚近似下,建立了准一维多链无序体系直流、交流电子跳跃输运模型,通过计算探讨了无序模式、维度效应、温度及外场对其直流、交流电导率的影响.计算结果表明:准一维多链无序体系的直流、交流电导率随着格点能量无序度的增大而减小,非对角无序具有增强体系电子输运能力的作用.随着链数的增加,体系的直流、交流电导率增大,但格点能量无序度较小时,维度效应的影响不明显.在对角无序情况下准一维多链无序体系的交流电导率随温度的升高而增大,而在非对角无序模式下却随温度的升高而减小,但对于直流情况,体系的直流电导率随温度的升     

Phonon thermal conductance of disordered graphene strips with armchair edges

Based on the model of lattice dynamics together with the transfer matrix technique, we investigate the thermal conductances of phonons in quasi-one-dimensional disordered graphene strips with armchair edges using Landauer formalism for thermal transport. It is found that the contributions to thermal conductance from the phonon transport near von Hove singularities is significantly suppressed by the presence of disorder, on the contrary to the effect of disorder on phonon modes in other frequency regions. Besides the magnitude, for different widths of the strips, the thermal conductance also shows different temperature dependence. At low temperatures, the thermal conductance displays quantized features of both pure and disordered graphene strips implying that the transmission of phonon modes at low frequencies are almost unaffected by the disorder.     

Spin-filtered edge states in graphene

Spin–orbit coupling changes graphene, in principle, into a two-dimensional topological insulator, also known as quantum spin Hall insulator. One of the expected consequences is the existence of spin-filtered edge states that carry dissipationless spin currents and undergo no backscattering in the presence of non-magnetic disorder, leading to quantization of conductance. Whereas, due to the small size of spin–orbit coupling in graphene, the experimental observation of these remarkable predictions is unlikely, the theoretical understanding of these spin-filtered states is shedding light on the electronic properties of edge states in other two-dimensional quantum spin Hall insulators. Here we review the effect of a variety of perturbations, like curvature, disorder, edge reconstruction, edge crystallographic orientation, and Coulomb interactions on the electronic properties of these spin filtered states.     

Topology of a <Superscript>3</Superscript>He-A Film on a Corrugated Graphene Substrate

A thin film of superfluid ³He on a corrugated graphene substrate represents topological matter with a smooth disorder. It is possible that the atomically smooth disorder produced by the corrugated graphene does not destroy the superfluidity even in a very thin film, where the system can be considered as quasi two-dimensional topological material. This will allow us to study the effect of disorder on different classes of the 2 + 1 topological materials: the chiral ³He-A with intrinsic quantum Hall effect and the time reversal invariant planar phase with intrinsic spin quantum Hall effect. In the limit of smooth disorder, the system can be considered as a Chern mosaic, i.e., a collection of domains with different values of Chern numbers. In this limit, the quantization of the Hall conductance is determined by the percolated domain, while the density of the fermionic states is determined by the edge modes on the boundaries of the finite domains. This system can be useful for the general consideration of disorder in the topological matter.     

多通道石墨纳米带中弹性声学声子输运和热导特性

采用非平衡格林函数方法, 在保持总的能量输出通道中石墨链数不变的条件下, 研究并比较了并列的石墨纳米带通道中弹性声学声子输运和热导特性. 结果表明, 能量输出通道的增加能降低每个能量输出通道的热导; 与能量输入热库最近的能量输出通道热导最大, 最远的能量输出通道热导最小; 中间能量输出通道的热导性质与并列的各输出通道的结构参数密切相关, 最近和最远的能量输出通道的热导性质仅与各自能量输出通道的结构参数有关; 粗糙边缘结构能有效调节各通道的热导; 总的热导性质与能量输出通道石墨链数、能量输出通道数以及边缘结构粗糙程度密切相关.     

Shot noise fluctuations in disordered graphene nanoribbons near the Dirac point

Random fluctuations of the shot-noise power in disordered graphene nanoribbons are studied. In particular, we calculate the distribution of the shot noise of nanoribbons with zigzag and armchair edge terminations. We show that the shot noise statistics is different for each type of these two graphene structures, which is a consequence of the presence of different electron localizations: while in zigzag nanoribbons electronic edge states are Anderson localized, in armchair nanoribbons edge states are absent, but electrons are anomalously localized. Our analytical results are verified by tight binding numerical simulations with random hopping elements, i.e., off diagonal disorder, which preserves the symmetry of the graphene sublattices.     

Interplay of Rashba spin orbit coupling and disorder in the conductance properties of a four terminal junction device

We report a thorough theoretical investigation on the quantum transport of a disordered four terminal device in the presence of Rashba spin orbit coupling (RSOC) in two dimensions. Specifically we compute the behaviour of the longitudinal (charge) conductance, spin Hall conductance and spin Hall conductance fluctuation as a function of the strength of disorder and Rashba spin orbit interaction using the Landauer Büttiker formalism via Green’s function technique. Our numerical calculations reveal that both the conductances diminish with disorder. At smaller values of the RSOC parameter, the longitudinal and spin Hall conductances increase, while both vanish in the strong RSOC limit. The spin current is more drastically affected by both disorder and RSOC than its charge counterpart. The spin Hall conductance fluctuation does not show any universality in terms of its value and it depends on both disorder as well as on the RSOC strength. Thus the spin Hall conductance fluctuation has a distinct character compared to the fluctuation in the longitudinal conductance. Further one parameter scaling theory is studied to assess the transition to a metallic regime as claimed in literature and we find no confirmation about the emergence of a metallic state induced by RSOC.     

Reprint of : Shot noise fluctuations in disordered graphene nanoribbons near the Dirac point

Random fluctuations of the shot-noise power in disordered graphene nanoribbons are studied. In particular, we calculate the distribution of the shot noise of nanoribbons with zigzag and armchair edge terminations. We show that the shot noise statistics is different for each type of these two graphene structures, which is a consequence of the presence of different electron localizations: while in zigzag nanoribbons electronic edge states are Anderson localized, in armchair nanoribbons edge states are absent, but electrons are anomalously localized. Our analytical results are verified by tight binding numerical simulations with random hopping elements, i.e., off diagonal disorder, which preserves the symmetry of the graphene sublattices.     

(De)localization and the mobility edges in a disordered double chain with long-range intrachain correlation and short-range interchain correlation

Correlation effects and phase transitions are central issues in current studies on disordered systems. In this paper, we study the electronic properties of a disordered double chain with long-range intrachain correlation and short-range interchain correlation. Based on detailed numerical calculations, finite size scaling analysis and empirical analytical calculations, we obtain a phase diagram containing rich physics due to the interplay among the disorder, short-range and long-range correlations. Besides the long-range correlation induced localization-delocalization transitions, we find both first-order and second-order quantum phase transitions on changing the short-range correlation. Interestingly, the localization may be suppressed by increasing the disorder strength in some parameter regime and the 'anti-correlation' leads to the most delocalized state. Our studies shine some light on the mechanism of the charge transport in DNA molecules, where both types of correlated disorders are present.