Unexpected Hole Doping of Graphene by Osmium Adatoms

The electronic transport of monolayer graphene devices is studied before and after in situ deposition of a sub-monolayer coating of osmium adatoms. Unexpectedly, and unlike all other metallic adatoms studied to date, osmium adatoms shift the charge neutrality point to more positive gate voltages. This indicates that osmium adatoms act as electron acceptors and thus leave the graphene hole-doped. Analysis of transport data suggest that Os adatoms behave as charged impurity scatterers, albeit with a surprisingly low charge-doping efficiency. The charge neutrality point of graphene is found to vary non-monotonically with gate voltage as the sample is warmed to room temperature, suggesting that osmium diffuses on the surface but is not completely removed.     

Magnetoexcitons in graphene

Specific features of magnetoexcitons in two-dimensional chiral structures, such as single-layer and bilayer graphene, are analyzed. The theory of magnetoexcitons, which are electron excitations corresponding to the transitions between the Landau levels, is presented for the case of high magnetic field. The effect of the Coulomb interaction, features of the band structure, and applied fields on the energy of magnetoexcitons is studied at different integer filling factors.     

The importance of electron correlation in graphene and hydrogenated graphene

Local density approximation (LDA) and Green function effective Coulomb (GW) calculations are performed to investigate the effect of electronic correlations on the electronic properties of both graphene and graphane. The size of band gap in graphane increases from 3.7 eV in LDA to 4.9 eV in GW approximation. By calculating maximally localized Wannier wave functions, we evaluate the necessary integrals to get the Hubbard U and the exchange J interaction from first principles for both graphene and graphane. Our ab-initio estimates indicate that in the case of graphene, in addition to the hopping amplitude t ～ 2.8 eV giving rise to the Dirac nature of low lying excitations, the Hubbard U value of ～8.7 eV gives rise to a super-exchange strength of J _AFM ～ 3.5 eV. This value dominates over the direct (ferromagnetic) exchange value of J _FM ～ 1.6 eV. This brings substantial Mott-Heisenberg aspects into the problem of graphene. Moreover, similarly large values of the Hubbard and super-exchange strength in graphane suggests that the nature of gap in graphane has substantial Mott character.     

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.     

Echoes of relativistic Landau levels in graphene and bilayer graphene

The problem of echo effects that can originate in graphene and bilayer graphene upon the generation of relativistic Landau levels in a quantizing magnetic field is considered. Graphene (bilayer graphene) is considered in a long-wave approximation near the Dirac points. It is proposed that the echo effect be used for the quantum memory of optical states in the far infrared.     

Quantum dots in graphene

We suggest a way of confining quasiparticles by an external potential in a small region of a graphene strip. Transversal electron motion plays a crucial role in this confinement. Properties of thus obtained graphene quantum dots are investigated theoretically for different types of the boundary conditions at the edges of the strip. The (quasi)bound states exist in all systems considered. At the same time, the dependence of the conductance on the gate voltage carries information about the shape of the edges.     

Electron-induced rippling in graphene

We show that the interaction between flexural phonons, when corrected by the exchange of electron-hole excitations, may drive the graphene sheet into a quantum critical point characterized by the vanishing of the bending rigidity of the membrane. Ripples arise then due to spontaneous symmetry breaking, following a mechanism similar to that responsible for the condensation of the Higgs field in relativistic field theories, and leading to a zero-temperature buckling transition in which the order parameter is given by the square of the gradient of the flexural phonon field.     

Proximity-induced superconductivity in graphene

We propose a way of making graphene superconductive by putting on it small superconductive islands which cover a tiny fraction of graphene area. We show that the critical temperature, T _c , can reach several Kelvins at the experimentally accessible range of parameters. At low temperatures, T T _c , and zero magnetic field, the density of states is characterized by a small gap E _g ≤ T _c resulting from the collective proximity effect. Transverse magnetic field H _g (T) ∝ E _g is expected to destroy the spectral gap driving graphene layer to a kind of a superconductive glass state. Melting of the glass state into a metal occurs at a higher field H _g2(T). The article is published in the original.     

Vibrational properties of graphene and graphene layers

The phonon dispersions of graphene and graphene layers are theoretically investigated within fifth‐nearest‐neighbor force‐constant approach. Based on their symmetry groups, the number of Raman‐ and infrared‐active modes at the Γ point is given. Interatomic force constants are recalculated by fitting them to experimental phonon energy dispersion curves. Wavenumbers of optically active modes are presented as a function of number of layers (n). Our calculated results reproduce well the experimental data of G peak for graphene (1587 cm⁻¹) and graphite (1581.6 cm⁻¹) and clearly give the relation that ω_G = 1581.6 + 11/(1 + n^1.6). Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Impurity effects in graphene

Polarization-independent and omnidirectional tunable bandpass filters have been proposed and demonstrated. It is seen that a bilayer period structure composed of single-negative materials can act as a tunable filter, which can be changed from a filter with two symmetrical passband to one with a single pass bandpass, or from one with a wide to one with a narrow pass band. Moreover, the proposed filter is insensitive to the incident angle and polarization of light, which is an omnidirectional, polarization-independent filter for incidence angles between 0° to 90°.     

Transport in graphene nanostructures

Graphene nanostructures are promising candidates for future nanoelectronics and solid-state quantum information technology. In this review we provide an overview of a number of electron transport experiments on etched graphene nanostructures. We briefly revisit the electronic properties and the transport characteristics of bulk, i.e., two-dimensional graphene. The fabrication techniques for making graphene nanostructures such as nanoribbons, single electron transistors and quantum dots, mainly based on a dry etching ??paper-cutting?? technique are discussed in detail. The limitations of the current fabrication technology are discussed when we outline the quantum transport properties of the nanostructured devices. In particular we focus here on transport through graphene nanoribbons and constrictions, single electron transistors as well as on graphene quantum dots including double quantum dots. These quasi-one-dimensional (nanoribbons) and quasi-zero-dimensional (quantum dots) graphene nanostructures show a clear route of how to overcome the gapless nature of graphene allowing the confinement of individual carriers and their control by lateral graphene gates and charge detectors. In particular, we emphasize that graphene quantum dots and double quantum dots are very promising systems for spin-based solid state quantum computation, since they are believed to have exceptionally long spin coherence times due to weak spin-orbit coupling and weak hyperfine interaction in graphene.     

Raman spectrum of graphene and graphene layers

Graphene is the two-dimensional building block for carbon allotropes of every other dimensionality. We show that its electronic structure is captured in its Raman spectrum that clearly evolves with the number of layers. The D peak second order changes in shape, width, and position for an increasing number of layers, reflecting the change in the electron bands via a double resonant Raman process. The G peak slightly down-shifts. This allows unambiguous, high-throughput, nondestructive identification of graphene layers, which is critically lacking in this emerging research area.     

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.     

Reconstruction-Determined Diffusion of Ag Adatoms on the Si(111)-(7X7) Surface

Surface diffusion is one of the basic processes determining morphology of a growing film. In the case of metal heteroepitaxy on Si(111)-(7X7) the diffusion is strongly affected by the presence of surface reconstruction, which introduces additional constraints into the motion of deposited atoms. To determine diffusion parameters we used two different approaches: i) interpretation of experimentally observed morphologies by a coarse-grained kinetic Monte Carlo model, ii) direct observation of adatom movement using UHV STM. The attempt frequency and the barrier to hopping of a single Ag atom between half-unit cells of the reconstruction were estimated in both cases. Obtained values are compared and discussed.     

Strain engineering in graphene

Graphene is a two dimensional metallic membrane. Deformations of the membrane, i.e. strains, and topological defects of the crystalline lattice, couple to the electrons in the same way as external gauge fields. The origin of these fields, and their effects on the electronic properties of graphene, are reviewed.     

Shot noise in graphene

We report measurements of current noise in single-layer and multilayer graphene devices. In four single-layer devices, including a p-n junction, the Fano factor remains constant to within +/-10% upon varying carrier type and density, and averages between 0.35 and 0.38. The Fano factor in a multilayer device is found to decrease from a maximal value of 0.33 at the charge-neutrality point to 0.25 at high carrier density. These results are compared to theories for shot noise in ballistic and disordered graphene.     

Phonon dispersion in graphene

Taking into account the constraints imposed by the lattice symmetry, we calculate the phonon dispersion for graphene with interactions between the first and second nearest neighbors. We show that only five force constants give a very good fitting to the elastic constants and phonon frequencies observed in graphite. The text was submitted by the author in English.     

Thermal transport in graphene

The recent advances in graphene isolation and synthesis methods have enabled potential applications of graphene in nanoelectronics and thermal management, and have offered a unique opportunity for investigation of phonon transport in two-dimensional materials. In this review, current understanding of phonon transport in graphene is discussed along with associated experimental and theoretical investigation techniques. Several theories and experiments have suggested that the absence of interlayer phonon scattering in suspended monolayer graphene can result in higher intrinsic basal plane thermal conductivity than that for graphite. However, accurate experimental thermal conductivity data of clean suspended graphene at different temperatures are still lacking. It is now known that contact of graphene with an amorphous solid or organic matrix can suppress phonon transport in graphene, although further efforts are needed to better quantify the relative roles of interface roughness scattering and phonon leakage across the interface and to examine the effects of other support materials. Moreover, opportunities remain to verify competing theories regarding mode specific scattering mechanisms and contributions to the total thermal conductivity of suspended and supported graphene, especially regarding the contribution from the flexural phonons. Several measurements have yielded consistent interface thermal conductance values between graphene and different dielectrics and metals. A challenge has remained in establishing a comprehensive theoretical model of coupled phonon and electron transport across the highly anisotropic and dissimilar interface.