Transport and Conductance in Fibonacci Graphene Superlattices with Electric and Magnetic Potentials

We investigate the electron transport and conductance properties in Fibonacci quasi-periodic graphene superlat- rices with electrostatic barriers and magnetic vector potentials. It is found that a new Dirac point appears in the band structure of graphene superlattice and the position of the Dirac point is exactly located at the energy corresponding to the zero-averaged w^ve number. The magnetic and eleetr/c potentials modify the energy band structure and transmission spectrum in entirely diverse ways. In addition, the angular-dependent transmission is blocked by the potential barriers at certain incident angles due to the appearance of the evanescent states. The effects of lattice constants and different potentials on angular-averaged conductance are also discussed.

Electronic band gap and transport in graphene superlattice with a Gaussian profile potential voltage

We study the electronic properties for the graphene-based one-dimensional superlattices, whose potential voltages vary according to the envelope of a Gaussian function. It is found that an unusual Dirac point exists and its location is exactly associated with a zero-averaged wave number （zero-re） gap. This zero-k gap is less sensitive to incident angle and lattice constants, properties opposing those of Bragg gap. The defect mode appearing inside the zero-l gap has an effect on transmission, conductance, and shot noise, which will be useful for further investigation.

Low Thermal Conductivity of Paperclip-Shaped Graphene Superlattice Nanoribbons

We design some graphene superlattice structures with ultra-low thermal conductivity 121 W//mK, which is only 6~ of the straight graphene nanoribbons. The thermal conductivity of graphene superlattice nanoribbons （GSNRs） is investigated by using molecular dynamics simulations. It is reported that the thermal conductivity of graphene superlattiee nanoribbons is significantly lower than that of the straight graphene nanoribbons （GNRs）. Compared with the phonon spectra of straight GNRs, GSNRs have more forbidden bands. The overlap of phonon spectra between two supercells is shrinking.

Moirépatterns arising from bilayer graphone/graphene superlattice

Moirépatterns from two-dimensional(2D)graphene heterostructures assembled via van der Waals interactions have sparked considerable interests in physics with the purpose to tailor the electronic properties of graphene.Here we report for the first time the observation of moire patterns arising from a bilayer graphone/graphene superlattice produced through direct single-sided hydrogenation of a bilayer graphene on substrate.Compared to pristine graphene,the bilayer superlattice exhibits a rippled surface and two types of moire patterns are observed:triangular and linear moire patterns with the periodicities of 11 nm and 8-9 nm,respectively.These moire patterns are revealed from atomic force microscopy and further confirmed by following fast Fourier transform(FFT)analysis.Density functional theory(DFT)calculations are also performed and the optimized lattice constants of bilayer superlattice heterostructure are in line with our experimental analysis.These findings show that well-defined triangular and linear periodic potentials can be introduced into the graphene system through the single-sided hydrogenation and also open a route towards the tailoring of electronic properties of graphene by various moirépotentials.

The electronic structure and intervalley coupling of artificial and genuine graphene superlattices

The so-called artificial graphene is an artificial material whose low-energy carriers are described by the massless Dirac equation. Applying a periodic potential with triangular symmetry to a two-dimensional electron gas is one approach to make such a material. According to recent experimental results, it is now possible to realize artificial graphene in the lab and to even apply an additional lateral, one-dimensional periodic potential to it. We name the latter system an artificial graphene superlattice in order to distinguish it from a genuine graphene superlaedce made from graphene. In this study, we investigate the electronic structure of artificial graphene superlattices, which exhibit the emergence of energy band gaps, merging and splitting of the Dirac points, etc. Then, from a similar investigation on genuine graphene superlattices, we show that many of these features originate from the coupling between Dirac fermions residing in two different valleys--the intervaUey coupling. Furthermore, contrary to previous studies, we find that the effects of intervalley coupling on the electronic structure cannot be ignored, irrespective of the length of the spatial period of the superlattice.

Spin-dependent transport properties and Seebeck effects for a crossed graphene superlattice p-n junction with armchair edge

Using the nonequilibrium Green＇s function method combined with the tight-binding Hamiltonian, we theoretically investigate the spin-dependent transmission probability and spin Seebeck coefficient of a crossed armchair-edge graphene nanoribbon （AGNR） superl＇attice p-n junction under a perpendicular magnetic field with a ferromagnetic insulator, where junction widths Wi of 40 and 41 are considered to exemplify the effect of semiconducting and metallic AGNRs, respectively. A pristine AGNR system is metallic when the transverse layer m = 3j ＋ 2 with a positive integer j and an insulator otherwise. When stubs are present, a semiconducting AGNR junction with width W1= 40 always shows metallic behavior regardless of the potential drop magnitude, magnetization strength, stub length, and per- pendicular magnetic field strength. However, metallic or semiconducting behavior can be obtained from a metallic AGNR junction with Wi = 41 by adjusting these physical parameters. Furthermore, a metal-to-semiconductor transition can be obtained for both superlattice p-n junctions by adjust- ing the number of periods of the superlattice. In addition, the spin-dependent Seebeck coefficient and spin Seebeck coefficient of the two systems are of the same order of magnitude owing to the appearance of a transmission gap, and the maximum absolute value of the spin Seebeck coefficient reaches 370 μV/K when the optimized parameters are used. The calculated results offer new possi- bilities for designing electronic or heat-spintronic nanodevices based on the graphene superlattice p-n junction.

Spectroscopic Evidence for Electron Correlations in Epitaxial Bilayer Graphene with Interface-Reconstructed Superlattice Potentials

Superlattice potentials are theoretically predicted to modify the single-particle electronic structures. The resulting Coulomb-interaction-dominated low-energy physics would generate highly novel many-body phenomena. Here,by in situ tunneling spectroscopy, we show the signatures of superstructure-modulated correlated electron states in epitaxial bilayer graphene(BLG) on 6H-Si C(0001). As the carrier density is locally quasi-‘tuned’ by the superlattice potentials of a 6 × 6 interface reconstruction phase, the spectral-weight transfer occurs between the two broad peaks flanking the charge-neutral point. Such a detected non-rigid band shift beyond the single-particle band description implies the existence of correlation effects, probably attributed to the modified interlayer coupling in epitaxial BLG by the 6×6 reconstruction as in magic-angle BLG by the moiré potentials. Quantitative analysis suggests that the intrinsic interface reconstruction shows a high carrier tunability of ~1/2 filling range, equivalent to the back gating by a voltage of ~70 V in a typical gated BLG/SiO_(2)/Si device. The finding in interfacemodulated epitaxial BLG with reconstruction phase extends the BLG platform with electron correlations beyond the magic-angle situation, and may stimulate further investigations on correlated states in graphene systems and other van der Waals materials.

Inter-Well Coupling and Resonant Tunneling Modes of Multiple Graphene Quantum Wells

We investigate the inter-well coupling of multiple graphene quantum well structures consisting of graphenesuperlattices with different periodic potentials.The general form of the eigenlevel equation for the bound states of thequantum well is expressed in terms of the transfer matrix elements.It is found that the electronic transmission exhibitsresonant tunneling peaks at the eigenlevels of the bound states and shifts to the higher energy with increasing the incidentangle.If there are N coupled quantum wells,the resonant modes have N-fold splitting.The peaks of resonant tunnelingcan be controlled by modulating the graphene barriers.

First-principles study on the electronic and transport properties of periodically nitrogen-doped graphene and carbon nanotube superlattices

Prompted by recent reports on √3×√3 graphene superlattices with intrinsic inter-valley interactions, we perform first-principles calculations to investigate the electronic properties of periodically nitrogen- doped graphene and carbon nanotube nanostruetures. In these structures, nitrogen atoms substitute one-sixth of the carbon atoms in the pristine hexagonal lattices with exact periodicity to form perfect √3×√3 superlattices of graphene and carbon nanotubes. Multiple nanostructures of √3×√3 graphene ribbons and carbon nanotubes are explored, and all configurations show nonmagnetic and metallic behaviors. The transport properties of √3×√3 graphene and carbon nanotube superlattices are calculated utilizing the non-equilibrium Green＇s function formalism combined with density functional theory. The translnission spectrum through the pristine and √3×√3 armchair carbon nanotube heterostructure shows quantized behavior under certain circumstances.