Specific heat of graphene nanoribbons

We studied the specific heat of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) using an extended force constant model. We found that at low temperature, the specific heat decreases, and its variation with temperature increases with increasing GNR width. However, the specific heat increases with increasing GNR width after crossing a chaotic region. Free boundary conditions, -CHOH-terminated and armchair-edge-induced phonon nondegeneracy, shift and distortion and localized vibrational modes significantly influence GNR specific heat compared with periodic boundary conditions and bare and zigzag edges in GNRs. Finally, we found a uniform expression for specific heat vs. width at every temperature except for the chaotic region.     

多孔石墨烯纳米片电学性质的研究

采用紧束缚近似方法,研究了三角形锯齿型石墨烯纳米片(Triangular zigzag graphene nanosheets, TZGN)的电子结构.研究表明单孔TZGN结构的零能级都是外边缘态,跟孔的大小没有关系.多孔TZGN结构受孔间结构的影响,零能级会随着孔数目的增加逐渐出现内外边缘耦合态,导带和价带能级个数也会随着孔的大小和孔的数量的增加而减少.研究结果拓宽了石墨烯纳米结构在纳机电器件方面的应用.     

Fano resonance in graphene anti-dot and periodic graphene anti-dot arrays

We study the electron transport properties of graphene anti-dot and periodic graphene anti-dot arrays using the nonequilibrium Green?s function method and Landauer–Büttiker formula. Fano resonant peaks are observed in the vicinity of Fermi energy, because discrete states coexist with continuum energy states. These peaks move closer to Fermi energy with increasing the width of anti-dots, but move away from the Fermi energy with increasing the length of anti-dots. When N periodic anti-dots exist in the longitude direction, a rapid fluctuation appears in the conductance with varying resonance peaks, which is mainly from the local resonances created by quasibound state. When P periodic anti-dots exist in the transverse direction, P-fold resonant splitting peaks are observed around the Fermi energy, owing to the symmetric and antisymmetric superposition of quasibound states.     

Low temperature resonances in the electron heat capacity of finite systems

Temperature variations of the heat capacity (C) are studied in a low temperature regime T<δ_F∼ε_F/N for 2D and 3D systems with N∼10²-10⁴ treated as a canonical ensemble of N-noninteracting fermions. The analysis of C is performed by introducing the function φ(ε), the spectral distribution of C, that gives the contribution of each single-particle state to C. This function has two peaks divided by the energy interval . If at some temperature T_res a resonance takes place i.e. the positions of these peaks coincide with energies of two levels nearest to ε_F then C vs T can show a local maximum at T_res. This gives us the possibility to assess the single-particle level spacings near the Fermi level.     

Electronic transport properties on V-shaped-notched zigzag graphene nanoribbons junctions

Using nonequilibrium Green?s functions in combination with the density functional theory, the spin-dependent electronic transport properties on V-shaped notched zigzag-edged graphene nanoribbons junctions have been calculated. The results show that the electronic transport properties are strongly depending on the type of notch and the symmetry of ribbon. The spin-filter phenomenon and negative differential resistance behaviors can be observed. A physical analysis of these results is given.     

Magnetic susceptibility and heat capacity of graphene in two-band Harrison model

Using a two-band tight-binding Harrison model and Green's function technique, the influences of both localized σ and delocalized π electrons on the density of states, the Pauli paramagnetic susceptibility, and the heat capacity of a graphene sheet are investigated. We witness an extension in the bandwidth and an increase in the number of Van-Hove singularities as well. As a notable point, besides the magnetic nature which includes diamagnetism in graphene-based nanosystems, a paramagnetic behavior associated with the itinerant π electrons could be occurred. Further, we report a Schottky anomaly in the heat capacity. This study asserts that the contribution of both σ and π electrons play dominant roles in the mentioned physical quantities.     

Electronic structure and trajectory control of Dirac fermions in graphene ribbons under the competition between electric and magnetic fields

We investigate the electronic structure of graphene ribbons under the competition between lateral electric and normal magnetic fields. The squeezing of quantum level spacings caused by either field is studied. Based on the knowledge of the dispersion under both fields, we analyze the electronic trajectories near the junctions of different electric and magnetic fields configurations. The junctions can split and join electron beams, and the conductance is quite robust against disorder near the junction interfaces. These junction devices can be used as bricks for building more complicated interference devices.     

Electronic specific heat of nanographite ribbons

The electronic specific heat of nanographite ribbons exhibits rich temperature dependence, mainly owing to the special band structures. The thermal property strongly depends on the geometric structures, the edge structure and the width. There is a simple relation between the ribbon width and the electronic specific heat for the metallic or semiconducting armchair ribbons. However, it is absent for the zigzag ribbons. The metallic armchair ribbons exhibit linear temperature dependence. The semiconducting armchair ribbons exhibit composite behavior of power and exponential functions. As for the zigzag ribbons, the temperature dependence of the specific heat is proportional to T^1−p. The value of p quickly increases from to 1 as the ribbon width gradually grows. The zigzag ribbons might be the first system which exhibits the novel temperature dependence. The nanographite ribbons differ from an infinite graphite sheet, which illustrates that the finite-size effects are significant.     

Electronic heat capacity and conductivity of gapped graphene

It investigated the effects of orderly substituted atoms on density of states, electronic heat capacity and electrical conductivity of graphene plane within tight-binding Hamiltonian model and Green's function method. The results reveal a band gap in the density of states, leading to an acceptor or donor semiconductor. In the presence of foreign atoms, the heat capacity decreases (increases) before (after) the Schottky anomaly. Moreover, the electrical conductivity of the gapped graphene reduces on all ranges of temperature compared to the pristine case. Deductively, all changes in the electronic properties depend on the difference between the on-site energies of the carbon and replaced atoms.     

Electronic transport on graphene armchair-edge nanoribbons with Fermi velocity and potential barriers

The transport properties of Dirac fermions through armchair-edge graphene nanoribbons (AGNRs) with a single and double rectangular Fermi velocity $v_F$ and electrostatic potential U barriers is investigated. We employ a transfer matrix method (TMM) to compute the transmission coefficient of the full set of propagating mode which is used to obtain the conductance and Fano factor spectra for both metallic and semiconducting nanoribbons. We show that a reduced Fermi velocity within the barrier region can partially suppress the backscattering resulting from the electrostatic potential. In a double barrier structure, the emergence of high-order transmitting modes is shown to substantially reduce the Fano factor in the spectral region around U. These results indicate that the simultaneous tuning of $v_F$ and U in barrier regions can be explored to control the electronic transport in graphene-based nanoelectronics structures.     

Transport in suspended graphene

Motivated by recent experiments on suspended graphene showing carrier mobilities as high as 200,000 cm²/V s, we theoretically calculate transport properties assuming Coulomb impurities as the dominant scattering mechanism. We argue that the substrate-free experiments done in the diffusive regime are consistent with our theory and verify many of our earlier predictions including (i) removal of the substrate will increase mobility since most of the charged impurities are in the substrate, (ii) the minimum conductivity is not universal, but depends on impurity concentration with cleaner samples having a higher minimum conductivity. We further argue that experiments on suspended graphene put strong constraints on the two parameters involved in our theory, namely, the charged impurity concentration and d, the typical distance of a charged impurity from the graphene sheet. The recent experiments on suspended graphene indicate a residual impurity density of which are presumably stuck to the graphene interface, compared to impurity densities of for graphene on SiO₂ substrate. Transport experiments can therefore be used as a spectroscopic tool to identify the properties of the remaining impurities in suspended graphene.     

Orbital electronic heat capacity of hydrogenated monolayer and bilayer graphene

The tight-binding Harrison model and Green's function approach have been utilized in order to investigate the contribution of hybridized orbitals in the electronic density of states(DOS) and electronic heat capacity(EHC) for four hydrogenated structures, including monolayer chair-like, table-like, bilayer AA- and finally AB-stacked graphene. After hydrogenation, monolayer graphene and bilayer graphene are behave as semiconducting systems owning a wide direct band gap and this means that all orbitals have several states around the Fermi level. The energy gap in DOS and Schottky anomaly in EHC curves of these structures are compared together illustrating the maximum and minimum band gaps are appear for monolayer chair-like and bilayer AA-stacked graphane, respectively. In spite of these, our findings show that the maximum and minimum values of Schottky anomaly appear for hydrogenated bilayer AA-stacked and monolayer table-like configurations, respectively.     

Electronic structure tuning and band gap opening of graphene by hole/electron codoping

A pathway to open the band gap of graphene by p-n codoping is presented according to the first principles study. Two models are used: Lithium adsorbed on Boron-doped graphene (BG) and Boron-Nitrogen (B/N) codoping into graphene. The stability of Lithium adsorbed on BG is firstly analyzed, showing that the hollow site is the most stable configuration, and there is no energy barrier from some metastable configurations to a stable one. After the p-n codoping, the electronic structures of graphene are modulated to open a band gap with width from 0.0 eV to 0.49 eV, depending on the codoping configurations. The intrinsic physical mechanism responsible for the gap opening is the combination of the Boron atom acting as hole doping and Nitrogen (Lithium) as electron doping.     

Transport properties of mesoscopic graphene rings

Based on a recursive Green's function method, we investigate the conductance of mesoscopic graphene rings in the presence of disorder, in the limit of phase coherent transport. Two models of disorder are considered: edge disorder and surface disorder. Our simulations show that the conductance decreases exponentially with the edge disorder and the surface disorder. In the presence of flux, a clear Aharonov-Bohm conductance oscillation with the period Φ₀ (Φ₀=h/e) is observed. The edge disorder and the surface disorder have no effect on the period of AB oscillation. The amplitudes of AB oscillations vary with gate voltage and flux, which is consistent with the previous results. Additionally, ballistic rectification and negative differential resistance are observed in I-V curves, with on/off characteristic.     

Adsorption-induced magnetism properties in graphene

Using first-principles calculations, we investigate magnetic properties and electronic structures of graphene with H, N and P adsorptions. With a change in adsorption density from 1/50 to 1/162 a band gap changing from ∼1.2 to 0.1 eV emerges in a H-absorbed graphene, leading to the semiconducting graphene and showing ferromagnetism with the magnetic moment of the system changing from 0.76 to 0.42μ_B. The unpaired electrons in the absorbed N/P atoms are polarized and thus it exhibits magnetic moment per N/P atom changing from 0.38/0.20 to 0.60/0.14μ_B and metallic and half-metallic magnetism, respectively. The spin-polarized graphene system has a great application prospect in spintronics.     

Numerical study of localization length in disordered graphene nanoribbons

In this work, we study quantum transport properties of a defective graphene nanoribbon (DGNR) attached to two semi-infinite metallic armchair graphene nanoribbon (AGNR) leads. A line of defects is considered in the GNR device with different configurations, which affects on the energy spectrum of the system. The calculations are based on the tight-binding model and Green’s function method, in which localization length of the system is investigated, numerically. By controlling disorder concentration, the extended states can be separated from the localized states in the system. Our results may have important applications for building blocks in the nano-electronic devices based on GNRs.     

Localization in disordered systems with interactions

We present an improved numerical approach to the study of disorder and interactions in quasi-1D systems which combines aspects of the transfer matrix method and the density matrix renormalization group which have been successfully applied to disorder and interacting problems respectively. The method is applied to spinless fermions in 1D and a generalization to finite cross-sections is outlined.      

Electronic structure and optical properties of non-metallic modified graphene: a first-principles study

In this paper, the electronic structure and stability of the intrinsic, B-, N-, Si-, S-doped graphene are studied based on first-principles calculations of density functional theory. Firstly, the intrinsic, B-, N-, Si-, S-doped graphene structures are optimized, and then the forming energy, band structure, density of states, differential charge density are analyzed and calculated. The results show that B- and Si-doped systems are p-type doping, while N is n-type doping. By comparing the forming energy, it is found that N atoms are more easily doped in graphene. In addition, for B-, N-, Si-doped systems, it is found that the doping atoms will open the band gap, leading to a great change in the band structure of the doping system. Finally, we systematically study the optical properties of the different configurations. By comparison, it is found that the order of light sensitivity in the visible region is as follows: S-doped> Si-doped> pure > B-doped > N-doped. Our results will provide theoretical guidance for the stability and electronic structure of non-metallic doped graphene.