Optimizing long-range order, band gap, and group velocities for graphene on close-packed metal surfaces

We compare different growth methods with the aim of optimizing the long-range order of a graphene layer grown on Ru(0001). Combining chemical vapor deposition with carbon loading and segregation of the surface layer leads to autocorrelation lengths of 240 ?. We present several routes to band gap and charge carrier mobility engineering for the example of graphene on Ir(111). Ir cluster superlattices self-assembled onto the graphene moiré pattern produce a strong renormalization of the electron group velocity close to the Dirac point, leading to highly anisotropic Dirac cones and the enlargement of the gap from 140 to 340 meV. This gap can further be enhanced to 740 meV by Na co-adsorption onto the Ir cluster superlattice at room temperature. This value is close to that of Ge, and the high group velocity of the charge carriers is fully preserved. We also present data for Na adsorbed without the Ir clusters. In both cases we find that the Na is on top of the graphene layer.     

Reversal of Klein reflection by magnetic barriers in bilayer graphene

Massless Dirac fermions in monolayer graphene exhibit total transmission when normally incident on a scalar potential barrier, a consequence of the Klein paradox originally predicted by O Klein for relativistic electrons obeying the 3 + 1 dimensional Dirac equation. For bilayer graphene, charge carriers are massive Dirac fermions and, due to different chiralities, electron and hole states are not coupled to each other. Therefore, the wavefunction of an incident particle decays inside a barrier as for the non-relativistic Schr?dinger equation. This leads to exponentially small transmission upon normal incidence. We show that, in the presence of magnetic barriers, such massive Dirac fermions can have transmission even at normal incidence. The general consequences of this behavior for multilayer graphene consisting of massless and massive modes are mentioned. We also briefly discuss the effect of a bias voltage on such magnetotransport.     

Density of states in randomly shaped graphene quantum dots

By numerical diagonalization of honeycomb-lattice tight-binding Hamiltonian we calculate the density of state (DOS) of irregularly shaped graphene quantum dots fabricated in the form of graphene nano-flakes. The finite-size electron confinement and the edge states result in the central peak of DOS that is located at the zero-energy Dirac point. The amplitude and width of the peak are provided by the form of the graphene cluster, but no regular correlation with its shape was found.     

Graphene wormholes: A condensed matter illustration of Dirac fermions in curved space

We study the properties of graphene wormholes in which a short nanotube acts as a bridge between two graphene sheets, where the honeycomb carbon lattice is curved from the presence of 12 heptagonal defects. By taking the nanotube bridge with very small length compared to the radius, we develop an effective theory of Dirac fermions to account for the low-energy electronic properties of the wormholes in the continuum limit, where the frustration induced by the heptagonal defects is mimicked by a line of fictitious gauge flux attached to each of them. We find in particular that, when the effective gauge flux from the topological defects becomes maximal, the zero-energy modes of the Dirac equation can be arranged into two triplets, that can be thought as the counterpart of the two triplets of zero modes that arise in the dual instance of the continuum limit of large spherical fullerenes. We further investigate the graphene wormhole spectra by performing a numerical diagonalization of tight-binding Hamiltonians for very large lattices realizing the wormhole geometry. The correspondence between the number of localized electronic states observed in the numerical approach and the effective gauge flux predicted in the continuum limit shows that graphene wormholes can be consistently described by an effective theory of two Dirac fermion fields in the curved geometry of the wormhole, opening the possibility of using real samples of the carbon material as a playground to experiment with the interaction between the background curvature and the Dirac fields.     

Magnetic confinement of massless Dirac fermions in graphene

Because of Klein tunneling, electrostatic potentials are unable to confine Dirac electrons. We show that it is possible to confine massless Dirac fermions in a monolayer graphene sheet by inhomogeneous magnetic fields. This allows one to design mesoscopic structures in graphene by magnetic barriers, e.g., quantum dots or quantum point contacts.     

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.     

Transmission through biased graphene strip

We solve the 2D Dirac equation describing graphene in the presence of a linear vector potential. The discretization of the transverse momentum due to the infinite mass boundary condition reduced our 2D Dirac equation to an effective massive 1D Dirac equation with an effective mass equal to the quantized transverse momentum. We use both a numerical Poincaré map approach, based on space discretization of the original Dirac equation, and a direct analytical method. These two approaches have been used to study tunneling phenomena through a biased graphene strip. The numerical results generated by the Poincaré map are in complete agreement with the analytical results.     

Sub-Poissonian shot noise in graphene

We calculate the mode-dependent transmission probability of massless Dirac fermions through an ideal strip of graphene (length L, width W, no impurities or defects) to obtain the conductance and shot noise as a function of Fermi energy. We find that the minimum conductivity of order e2/h at the Dirac point (when the electron and hole excitations are degenerate) is associated with a maximum of the Fano factor (the ratio of noise power and mean current). For short and wide graphene strips the Fano factor at the Dirac point equals 1/3, 3 times smaller than for a Poisson process. This is the same value as for a disordered metal, which is remarkable since the classical dynamics of the Dirac fermions is ballistic.     

Magnetic Kronig-Penney-type graphene superlattices: finite energy Dirac points with anisotropic velocity renormalization

We study the energy band structure of magnetic graphene superlattices with delta-function magnetic barriers and zero average magnetic field. The dispersion relation obtained using the T-matrix approach shows the emergence of an infinite number of Dirac-like points at finite energies, while the original Dirac point is still located at the same place as that for pristine graphene. The carrier group velocity at the original Dirac point is isotropically renormalized, but at finite energy Dirac points it is generally anisotropic. An asymmetry in the width between the wells and the barriers of the periodic potential induces a shift of the original Dirac point in the zero-energy plane, keeping the velocity renormalization isotropic.     

Radiation from electrons in graphene in strong electric field

We study the interaction of electrons in graphene with the quantized electromagnetic field in the presence of an applied uniform electric field using the Dirac model of graphene. Electronic states are represented by exact solutions of the Dirac equation in the electric background, and amplitudes of first-order Feynman diagrams describing the interaction with the photon field are calculated for massive Dirac particles in both valleys. Photon emission probabilities from a single electron and from a many-electron system at the charge neutrality point are derived, including the angular and frequency dependence, and several limiting cases are analyzed. The pattern of photon emission at the Dirac point in a strong field is determined by an interplay between the nonperturbative creation of electron–hole pairs and spontaneous emission, allowing for the possibility of observing the Schwinger effect in measurements of the radiation emitted by pristine graphene under DC voltage.     

Shot noise in ballistic graphene

We have investigated shot noise in graphene field effect devices in the temperature range of 4.2-30 K at low frequency (f=600-850 MHz). We find that for our graphene samples with a large width over length ratio W/L, the Fano factor F reaches a maximum F ~ 1/3 at the Dirac point and that it decreases strongly with increasing charge density. For smaller W/L, the Fano factor at Dirac point is significantly lower. Our results are in good agreement with the theory describing that transport at the Dirac point in clean graphene arises from evanescent electronic states.     

Wake effect in interactions of dipolar molecules with doped graphene

We study the wake effect in the charge carrier density in free graphene induced by an electric dipole moving parallel to it by using the dynamic polarization function of graphene within the random phase approximation for its π electrons described as Dirac?s fermions. We show that, while the equilibrium doping density of graphene sets a length scale for the period of the wake via graphene?s Fermi wavenumber, qualitative properties of the wake are strongly affected by the speed of the dipole, its distance from graphene, and the dipole moment orientation.     

Dirac semimetal in three dimensions

We show that the pseudorelativistic physics of graphene near the Fermi level can be extended to three dimensional (3D) materials. Unlike in phase transitions from inversion symmetric topological to normal insulators, we show that particular space groups also allow 3D Dirac points as symmetry protected degeneracies. We provide criteria necessary to identify these groups and, as an example, present ab initio calculations of β-cristobalite BiO(2) which exhibits three Dirac points at the Fermi level. We find that β-cristobalite BiO(2) is metastable, so it can be physically realized as a 3D analog to graphene.     

Bound states of Dirac fermions in monolayer gapped graphene in the presence of local perturbations

In graphene,conductance electrons behave as massless relativistic particles and obey an analogue of the Dirac equation in two dimensions with a chiral nature.For this reason,the bounding of electrons in graphene in the form of geometries of quantum dots is impossible.In gapless graphene,due to its unique electronic band structure,there is a minimal conductivity at Dirac points,that is,in the limit of zero doping.This creates a problem for using such a highly motivated new material in electronic devices.One of the ways to overcome this problem is the creation of a band gap in the graphene band structure,which is made by inversion symmetry breaking(symmetry of sublattices).We investigate the confined states of the massless Dirac fermions in an impured graphene by the short-range perturbations for "local chemical potential" and "local gap".The calculated energy spectrum exhibits quite different features with and without the perturbations.A characteristic equation for bound states(BSs) has been obtained.It is surprisingly found that the relation between the radial functions of sublattices wave functions,i.e.,f_m~+(r),g_m~+(r),and f_m~-(r),g_m~-(r),can be established by SO(2) group.     

Variational approach for the effects of periodic modulations on the spectrum of massless Dirac fermion

In the variational framework, we study the electronic energy spectrum of massless Dirac fermions of graphene subjected to one-dimensional oscillating magnetic and electrostatic fields centered around a constant uniform static magnetic field. We analyze the influence of the lateral periodic modulations in one direction, created by these oscillating electric and magnetic fields, on Dirac like Landau levels depending on amplitudes and periods of the field modulations. We compare our theoretical results with those found within the framework of non-degenerate perturbation theory. We found that the technique presented here yields energies lower than that obtained by the perturbation calculation, and thus gives more stable solutions for the electronic spectrum of massless Dirac fermion subjected to a magnetic field perpendicular to graphene layer under the influence of additional periodic potentials.     

Crossed Andreev reflection in graphene normal-superconductor-normal structures with pseudo-diffusive interfaces

In this Letter graphene normal-superconductor-normal heterostructures are modeled for studying the crossed Andreev reflection. A thin layer of undoped graphene with Fermi energy at the Dirac point at is assumed the interface between superconductor layer and each normal lead. The resulting contribution of the crossed Andreev reflection to the nonlocal conductance equals that of the electron elastic cotunneling. We explain this as another figure of merit for pseudodiffusive conduction at the Dirac point of the undoped layers. Also structures with only one undoped layer at the interface between the superconductor and one of the normal leads, as well as structures in which one of the leads is ferromagnetic, show pseudodiffusive conduction at the Dirac points.     

Acoustic analogue of graphene: observation of Dirac cones in acoustic surface waves

We demonstrate the presence of Dirac cones in the dispersion relation of acoustic waves propagating on the surface of a plate of methyl methacrylate containing a honeycomb lattice of cylindrical boreholes. This structure represents the acoustic analogue of graphene, the cylindrical cavities playing the role of carbon atoms while acoustic surface waves are the equivalent of electronic waves in graphene. Analytical expressions for the Dirac frequency and Dirac velocity in acoustics are given as a function of the radius and depth of boreholes. These parameters have been experimentally determined for a constructed structure and the data are in fairly good agreement with the predicted values.     

Landau levels in uniaxially strained graphene: A geometrical approach

The effect of strain on the Landau levels (LLs) spectra in graphene is studied, using an effective Dirac-like Hamiltonian which includes the distortion in the Dirac cones, anisotropy and spatial-dependence of the Fermi velocity induced by the lattice change through a renormalized linear momentum. We propose a geometrical approach to obtain the electron’s wave-function and the LLs in graphene from the Sturm–Liouville theory, using the minimal substitution method. The coefficients of the renormalized linear momentum are fitted to the energy bands, which are obtained from a Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculation. In particular, we evaluate the case of Dirac cones with an ellipsoidal transversal section resulting from uniaxially strained graphene along the Arm-Chair (AC) and Zig-Zag (ZZ) directions. We found that uniaxial strain in graphene induces a contraction of the LLs spectra for both strain directions. Also, is evaluated the contribution of the tilting of Dirac cone axis resulting from the uniaxial deformations to the contraction of the LLs spectra.     

Band structures of symmetrical graphene superlattice with cells of three regions

We study the electronic band structures of massless Dirac fermions in symmetrical graphene superlattice with cells of three regions. opening gaps and additional Dirac points. Finally, we inspect the potential effect on minibands, the anisotropy of group velocity and the energy bands contours near Dirac points. We also discuss the evolution of gap edges and cutoff region near the vertical Dirac points.     

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.