Tunneling of Dirac fermions through magnetic barriers in graphene

We have studied the tunneling of Dirac fermions through magnetic barriers in graphene. Magnetic barriers are produced via delta function-like inhomogeneous magnetic fields in which Dirac fermions in graphene experience the tunneling barrier in the real sense in contrast to Klein paradox caused by electrostatic barriers. The transmission through the magnetic barriers as functions of incident energy and angle of incoming fermions shows characteristic oscillations associated with tunneling resonances. We have also found the confined states in the magnetic barrier region which turn out to correspond to the total internal reflection in the usual optics.     

Orbital quantization in a system of edge Dirac fermions in nanoperforated graphene

The dependence of the electric resistance R of nanoperforated graphene samples on the position of the Fermi level E _F, which is varied by the gate voltage V _g, has been studied. Nanoperforation has been performed by irradiating graphene samples on a Si/SiO₂ substrate by heavy (xenon) or light (helium) ions. A series of regular peaks have been revealed on the R(V _g) dependence at low temperatures in zero magnetic field. These peaks are attributed to the passage of E _F through an equidistant set of levels formed by orbitally quantized states of edge Dirac fermions rotating around each nanohole. The results are in agreement with the theory of edge states for massless Dirac fermions.     

Broken-symmetry states of Dirac fermions in graphene with a partially filled high Landau level

We report on numerical study of the Dirac fermions in partially filled N=3 Landau level (LL) in graphene. At half-filling, the equal-time density-density correlation function displays sharp peaks at nonzero wave vectors +/-q*. Finite-size scaling shows that the peak value grows with electron number and diverges in the thermodynamic limit, which suggests an instability toward a charge density wave. A symmetry broken stripe phase is formed at large system size limit, which is robust against perturbation from disorder scattering. Such a quantum phase is experimentally observable through transport measurements. Associated with the special wave functions of the Dirac LL, both stripe and bubble phases become possible candidates for the ground state of the Dirac fermions in graphene with lower filling factors in the N=3 LL.     

Tunneling of Dirac fermions in graphene through a velocity barrier with modulated by magnetic fields

We study magnetic field modulated transport properties of Dirac fermions in graphene, where Dirac fermions penetrate through a velocity barrier. We find strong wave vector filtering and resonant effect. The angular-dependent region of resonant tunneling is suppressed by tuning velocity barriers. We can also found that the confined states in this velocity barrier can be changed by the magnetic field. Various novel devices, such as wavevector filter and magnetic switches, may be constructed based on our observed phenomena.     

Gap generation for Dirac fermions on Lobachevsky plane in a magnetic field

We study symmetry breaking and gap generation for fermions in the 2D space of constant negative curvature (the Lobachevsky plane) in an external covariantly constant magnetic field in a four-fermion model. It is shown that due to the magnetic and negative curvature catalyses phenomena the critical coupling constant is zero and there is a symmetry breaking condensate in the chiral limit even in free theory. We analyze solutions of the gap equation in the cases of zero, weak, and strong magnetic fields. As a byproduct, we calculate the density of states and the Hall conductivity for noninteracting fermions that may be relevant for studies of graphene.     

Chiral symmetry, quark mass, and scaling of the overlap fermions

The chiral symmetry relation and scaling of the overlap fermions are studied numerically on the quenched lattices at 3 couplings with about the same physical volume. We find that the generalized Gell-Mann-Oakes-Renner relation is satisfied to better than 1% down to the smallest quark mass at m(0)a = 0.006. We also obtain the quark mass from the PCAC relation and the pseudoscalar masses. The renormalization group invariant quark mass is shown to be fairly independent of scale. The pi and rho masses at a fixed m(pi)/m(rho) ratio indicate small O(a(2)) corrections. It is found that the critical slowing down sets in abruptly at a very small quark mass close to those of the physical u and d quarks.     

Electronic properties of phosphorene and graphene nanoribbons with edge vacancies in magnetic field

The graphene and phosphorene nanostructures have a big potential application in a large area of today's research in physics. However, their methods of synthesis still don't allow the production of perfect materials with an intact molecular structure. In this paper, the occurrence of atomic vacancies was considered in the edge structure of the zigzag phosphorene and graphene nanoribbons. For different concentrations of these edge vacancies, their influence on the metallic properties was investigated. The calculations were performed for different sizes of the unit cell. Furthermore, for a smaller size, the influence of a uniform magnetic field was added.     

Scattering theory and ground-state energy of Dirac fermions in graphene with two Coulomb impurities

We study the physics of Dirac fermions in a gapped graphene monolayer containing two Coulomb impurities. For the case of equal impurity charges, we discuss the ground-state energy using the linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) approach. For opposite charges of the Coulomb centers, an electric dipole potential results at large distances. We provide a nonperturbative analysis of the corresponding low-energy scattering problem.     

Femtosecond population inversion and stimulated emission of dense Dirac fermions in graphene

We show that strongly photoexcited graphene monolayers with 35 fs pulses quasi-instantaneously build up a broadband, inverted Dirac fermion population. Optical gain emerges and directly manifests itself via a negative conductivity at the near-infrared region for the first 200 fs, where stimulated emission completely compensates absorption loss in the graphene layer. Our experiment-theory comparison with two distinct electron and hole chemical potentials reproduce absorption saturation and gain at 40 fs, revealing, particularly, the evolution of the transient state from a hot classical gas to a dense quantum fluid with increasing the photoexcitation.     

The symmetry of three-electron states in a quantized magnetic field

The states of itinerant electrons on the finite square lattice in a quantized magnetic field are discussed. The single-electron states are classified by irreducible representations (IRs) of the magnetic translation group.The representation correspond to the Landau level, whereas its basis functions are analogs of the cyclotronic orbits. The filling factor of the Landau level is considered in the frame of multi-electron functions. Corresponding states are classified by the IR of MTG as well as by the irreducible representation of a symmetric group (permuting the electrons) and a unitary group (permuting electron states). The discussion is restricted to the case when the magnetic flux per unit cell of the two-dimensional square lattice is a rational number in terms of magnetic flux quanta. The additional parameter of the model is the Hubbard interaction between electrons.     

Dirac and normal fermions in graphite and graphene: implications of the quantum Hall effect

Spectral analysis of the Shubnikov-de Haas magnetoresistance oscillations and the quantum Hall effect (QHE) measured in quasi-2D highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) [Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 156402 (2003)] reveals two types of carriers: normal (massive) electrons with Berry phase 0 and Dirac-like (massless) holes with Berry phase pi. We demonstrate that recently reported integer- and semi-integer QHEs for bilayer and single-layer graphenes take place simultaneously in HOPG samples.     

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.     

On edge states in superconductors with time inversion symmetry breaking

The efficiency of conversion of the heat flux into hard x radiation (HXR) is analyzed, via time-dependent two-temperature one-dimensional non-LTE-radiation-hydrodynamic numerical modeling, for a heat-to-radiation flux converter linked to the edge of a low-atomic-number hot Z-pinch. The domain of parameters in this scheme is found where about the same HXR yield can be achieved at values of input energy which are an order of magnitude lower than in the conventional scheme of a radially imploding plasma. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 65, No. 7, 502–506 (10 April 1997) Published in English in the original Russian Journal. Edited by Steve Torstveit.     

Structure, stability, edge states, and aromaticity of graphene ribbons

We determine the stability, the geometry, the electronic, and magnetic structure of hydrogen-terminated graphene-nanoribbon edges as a function of the hydrogen content of the environment by means of density functional theory. Antiferromagnetic zigzag ribbons are stable only at extremely low ultravacuum pressures. Under more standard conditions, the most stable structures are the mono- and dihydrogenated armchair edges and a zigzag edge reconstruction with one di- and two monohydrogenated sites. At high hydrogen concentration "bulk" graphene is not stable and spontaneously breaks to form ribbons, in analogy to the spontaneous breaking of graphene into small-width nanoribbons observed experimentally in solution. The stability and the existence of exotic edge electronic states and/or magnetism is rationalized in terms of simple concepts from organic chemistry (Clar's rule).     

Spin-filtered edge states and quantum Hall effect in graphene

Electron edge states in graphene in the quantum Hall effect regime can carry both charge and spin. We show that spin splitting of the zeroth Landau level gives rise to counterpropagating modes with opposite spin polarization. These chiral spin modes lead to a rich variety of spin current states, depending on the spin-flip rate. A method to control the latter locally is proposed. We estimate Zeeman spin splitting enhanced by exchange, and obtain a spin gap of a few hundred Kelvin.