The opening of a gap in single-layer graphene is often ascribed to the breaking of the equivalence between the two carbon sublattices. We show by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy that Ir- and Na-modified graphene grown on the Ir(111) surface presents a very large unconventional gap that can be described in terms of a phenomenological "massless" Dirac model. We discuss the consequences and differences of this model in comparison of the standard massive gap model, and we investigate the conditions under which such anomalous gap can arise from a spontaneous symmetry breaking.
In the case of the strongly deformed graphene, gapless graphene may turn to gapped graphene at the critical deformation. We find that, like semi-massless fermions, electrons in the deformed graphene, at the critical point, mimic the dispersions of the massless fermions in one direction and the massive fermions in the other. Our predicted dispersion formula is the generalization of the previously predicted formula. The behavior of the particle-like semi-massless fermions tunneling through a gate barrier is contrasted with that of the (pure) massless fermions tunneling through a gate barrier in …
Gap opening in graphene is usually discussed in terms of a semiconducting-like spectrum, where the appearance of a finite gap at the Dirac point is accompanied by a finite mass for the fermions. In this Letter we propose a gap scenario from graphene which preserves the massless characters of the carriers. This approach explains recent spectroscopic measurements carried out in epitaxially-grown graphene, ranging from photoemission to optical transmission.
The Dirac electrons of graphene, an intrinsic zero gap semiconductor, uniquely carry spin and pseudospin that give rise to many fascinating electronic and transport properties. While isolated zigzag graphene nanoribbons are antiferromagnetic semiconductors, we show by means of first-principles and tight-binding calculations that zigzag graphene nanoribbons supported on graphene are half-metallic as a result of spin- and pseudospin-symmetry breaking. In particular, half-metallic Dirac cones are formed at K (K') near the Fermi level. The present results demonstrate that the unique combination of…
Massless Dirac fermions in graphene provide unprecedented opportunities to realize the Klein paradox, which is one of the most exotic and striking properties of relativistic particles. In the seminal theoretical work [Katsnelson et al., Nat. Phys. 2 620 (2006)], it was predicted that the massless Dirac fermions can pass through one-dimensional (1D) potential barriers unimpededly at normal incidence. Such a result seems to preclude confinement of the massless Dirac fermions in graphene by using 1D potential barriers. Here, we demonstrate, both experimentally and theoretically, that massless Dir…
We investigate generation of new Dirac cones in graphene under double-periodic and quasiperiodic superlattice potentials. We first show that double-periodic potentials generate the Dirac cones sporadically, following the Diophantine equation, in spite of the fact that double-periodic potentials are also periodic ones, for which previous studies predict consecutive appearance of the cones. The sporadic appearance is due to the fact that the dispersion relation of graphene is linear only up to an energy cutoff. We then show that quasiperiodic potentials generate the new Dirac cones densely with …
It is of keen interest to researchers understanding different approaches to confine massless Dirac fermions in graphene, which is also a central problem in making electronic devices based on graphene. Here, we studied spatial confinement, magnetic localization and their interactions on massless Dirac fermions in an angled graphene wedge formed by two linear graphene p-n boundaries with an angle 34. Using scanning tunneling microscopy, we visualized quasibound states temporarily confined in the studied graphene wedge. Large perpendicular magnetic fields condensed the massless Dirac fermions in …
The quantum spin Hall insulator (QSHI) state has been demonstrated in two semiconductor systems - HgTe/CdTe quantum wells (QWs) and InAs/GaSb QW bilayers. Unlike the HgTe/CdTe QWs, the inverted band gap in InAs/GaSb QW bilayers does not open at the $Γ$ point of the Brillouin zone, preventing the realization of massless Dirac fermions. Here, we propose a new class of semiconductor systems based on InAs/Ga(In)Sb multilayers, hosting a QSHI state, a graphene-like phase and a bilayer graphene analogue, depending on their layer thicknesses and geometry. The QSHI gap in the novel structures can reac…
The adhesion of graphene on slightly lattice-mismatched surfaces, for instance of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) or Ir(111), gives rise to a complex landscape of sublattice symmetry-breaking potentials for the Dirac fermions. Whereas a gap at the Dirac point opens for perfectly lattice-matched graphene on hBN, we show that the small lattice incommensurability prevents the opening of this gap and rather leads to a renormalized Dirac dispersion with a trigonal warping. This warping breaks the effective time reversal symmetry in a single valley. On top of this a new set of massless Dirac fermions …
The electronic properties of one-dimensional graphene superlattices strongly depend on the atomic size and orientation of the 1D external periodic potential. Using a tight-binding approach, we show that the armchair and zigzag directions in these superlattices have a different impact on the renormalization of the anisotropic velocity of the charge carriers. For symmetric potential barriers, the velocity perpendicular to the barrier is modified for the armchair direction while remaining unchanged in the zigzag case. For asymmetric barriers, the initial symmetry between the forward and backward …
Due to 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.
Electron transport through short, phase-coherent metal-graphene-metal devices occurs via resonant transmission through particle-in-a-box-like states defined by the atomically-sharp metal leads. we study the spectrum of particle-in-a-box states for single- and bi-layer graphene, corresponding to massless and massive two-dimensional (2d) Fermions.The density of states D as a function of particle number n shows the expected relations D(n) ~ n1/2 for massless 2d Fermions (electrons in single-layer graphene) and D(n) ~ constant for massive 2d Fermions (electrons in bi-layer graphene). The single pa…
Motivated by recent graphene transport experiments, we have undertaken a numerical study of the conductivity of disordered two-dimensional massless Dirac fermions. Our results reveal distinct differences between the cases of short-range and Coulomb randomly distributed scatterers. We speculate that this behavior is related to the Boltzmann transport theory prediction of dirty-limit behavior for Coulomb scatterers.
By solving two-component spinor equation for massless Dirac Fermions, we show that graphene under a periodic external magnetic field exhibits a unique energy spectrum: At low energies, Dirac Fermions are localized inside the magnetic region with discrete Landau energy levels, while at higher energies, Dirac Fermions are mainly found in non-magnetic regions with continuous energy bands originating from wavefunctions analogous to particle-in-box states of electrons. These findings offer a new methodology for the control and tuning of massless Dirac Fermions in graphene.
Graphene/h-BN has emerged as a model van der Waals heterostructure, and the band structure engineering by the superlattice potential has led to various novel quantum phenomena including the self-similar Hofstadter butterfly states. Although newly generated second generation Dirac cones (SDCs) are believed to be crucial for understanding such intriguing phenomena, so far fundamental knowledge of SDCs in such heterostructure, e.g. locations and dispersion of SDCs, the effect of inversion symmetry breaking on the gap opening, still remains highly debated due to the lack of direct experimental res…
Artificial lattices provide a tunable platform to realize exotic quantum devices. A well-known example is artificial graphene (AG), in which electrons are confined in honeycomb lattices and behave as massless Dirac fermions. Recently, AG systems have been constructed by manipulating molecules using scanning tunnelling microscope tips, but the nanoscale size typical for these constructed systems are impossible for practical device applications and insufficient for direct investigation of the electronic structures using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). Here, we demonstrate the …
At low energies, electrons in doped graphene sheets are described by a massless Dirac fermion Hamiltonian. In this work we present a semi-analytical expression for the dynamical density-density linear-response function of noninteracting massless Dirac fermions (the so-called "Lindhard" function) at finite temperature. This result is crucial to describe finite-temperature screening of interacting massless Dirac fermions within the Random Phase Approximation. In particular, we use it to make quantitative predictions for the specific heat and the compressibility of doped graphene sheets. We find …
It is highly desirable to integrate graphene into existing semiconductor technology, where the combined system is thermodynamically stable yet maintain a Dirac cone at the Fermi level. Firstprinciples calculations reveal that a certain transition metal (TM) intercalated graphene/SiC(0001), such as the strongly-bound graphene/intercalated-Mn/SiC, could be such a system. Different from free-standing graphene, the hybridization between graphene and Mn/SiC leads to the formation of a dispersive Dirac cone of primarily TM d characters. The corresponding Dirac spectrum is still isotropic, and the tr…
We study how low-energy charge carriers scatter off periodic and linear graphene grain boundaries oriented along the zigzag direction with a periodicity three times greater than that of pristine graphene. These defects map the two Dirac points into the same position, and thus allow for intervalley scattering to occur. Starting from graphene's first-neighbor tight-binding model we show how can we compute the boundary condition seen by graphene's massless Dirac fermions at such grain boundaries. We illustrate this procedure for the 3-periodic pentagon-only grain boundary, and then work out the l…
We consider the classical motion of a massless quasi-particle in a magnetic field and under a weak electromagnetic radiation with the frequency $ω$. Due to the non-parabolic, linear energy dispersion, the particle responds not only at the frequency $ω$ but generates a broad frequency spectrum around it. The linewidth of the cyclotron resonance turns out to be very broad even in a perfectly pure material which allows one to explain recent experimental data in graphene. It is concluded that the linear response theory does not work in graphene in finite magnetic fields.
We show that new massless Dirac fermions are generated when a slowly varying periodic potential is applied to graphene. These quasiparticles, generated near the supercell Brillouin zone boundaries with anisotropic group velocity, are different from the original massless Dirac fermions. The quasiparticle wavevector (measured from the new Dirac point), the generalized pseudospin vector, and the group velocity are not collinear. We further show that with an appropriate periodic potential of triangular symmetry, there exists an energy window over which the only available states are these quasipart…
We discuss plasmons of biased twisted bilayer graphene when the Fermi level lies inside the gap. The collective excitations are a network of chiral edge plasmons (CEP) entirely composed of excitations in the topological electronic edge states (EES) that appear at the AB-BA interfaces. The CEP form an hexagonal network with an unique energy scale $ε_p=\frac{e^2}{ε_0εt_0}$ with $t_0$ the moiré lattice constant and $ε$ the dielectric constant. From the dielectric matrix we obtain the plasmon spectra that has two main characteristics: (i) a diverging density of states at zero energy, and (ii) the …
Massless Dirac particles on the helicoid are theoretically investigated. With its possible application being helical graphene, we explore how the peculiarities of Dirac particles appear on the curved, screw-symmetric surface. The zweibein is used to derive the massless Dirac equation on the helicoid, as well as general curved surfaces. Bound states of massless Dirac electrons are shown to be absent on the helicoid, and then the scattering probabilities and the phase shifts on the surface are obtained from numerically calculated wave functions. We find the local density of states and the phase …
Using a novel structure, consisting of two, independently contacted graphene single layers separated by an ultra-thin dielectric, we experimentally measure the Coulomb drag of massless fermions in graphene. At temperatures higher than 50 K, the Coulomb drag follows a temperature and carrier density dependence consistent with the Fermi liquid regime. As the temperature is reduced, the Coulomb drag exhibits giant fluctuations with an increasing amplitude, thanks to the interplay between coherent transport in the graphene layer and interaction between the two layers.
Graphene and topological insulators (TI) possess two-dimensional Dirac fermions with distinct physical properties. Integrating these two Dirac materials in a single device creates interesting opportunities for exploring new physics of interacting massless Dirac fermions. Here we report on a practical route to experimental fabrication of graphene-Sb2Te3 heterostructure. The graphene-TI heterostructures are prepared by using a dry transfer of chemical-vapor-deposition grown graphene film. ARPES measurements confirm the coexistence of topological surface states of Sb2Te3 and Dirac π bands of grap…
We report measurements of the cyclotron mass in graphene for carrier concentrations n varying over three orders of magnitude. In contrast to the single-particle picture, the real spectrum of graphene is profoundly nonlinear so that the Fermi velocity describing the spectral slope reaches ~3x10^6 m/s at n <10^10 cm^-2, three times the value commonly used for graphene. The observed changes are attributed to electron-electron interaction that renormalizes the Dirac spectrum because of weak screening. Our experiments also put an upper limit of ~0.1 meV on the possible gap in graphene.
We discuss models for massless Dirac fermions being subject to a perpendicular magnetic field in spherical geometry. These models are analogues of Haldane`s spherical construction for massful charge carriers. The single particle states constructed here are easily implemented in existing numerical code for many-body problems in conventional quantum Hall systems. Moreover, the many-body states of fully filled sublevels in the subspace of lowest Landau level index are skyrmions with respect to the layer spin.
Based on first-principles method we predict a new low-energy Stone-Wales graphene SW40, which has an orthorhombic lattice with Pbam symmetry and 40 carbon atoms in its crystalline cell forming well-arranged Stone-Wales patterns. The calculated total energy of SW40 is just about 133 meV higher than that of graphene, indicating its excellent stability exceeds all the previously proposed graphene allotropes. We find that SW40 processes intrinsic Type-III Dirac-cone (Phys. Rev. Lett., 120, 237403, 2018) formed by band-crossing of a local linear-band and a local flat-band, which can result in highl…
Landau levels of AB-stacked four- to six-layer graphene were studied experimentally in the presence of a perpendicular electric field. The Landau levels at a low magnetic field showed a characteristic structure that originated from the mini-Dirac cones created by the perpendicular electric fields. Six-fold or twelve-fold degenerate Landau levels arising from the mini-Dirac cones were observed in the vicinity of the charge neutrality point as a radial structure in a plot of their Landau fan diagrams. The structure of four-layer graphene had approximate electron-hole symmetry near the charge neu…
Whereas thermal current noise $\langle I^2 \rangle$ in typical conductors is proportional to temperature $T$, $\langle I^2 \rangle$ in graphene exhibits a nonlinear $T$ dependence due to the massless nature of individual electrons. This unique $\langle I^2 \rangle$ arising from individually massless electrons is intimately linked to the non-zero collective mass of graphene electrons; namely, $\langle I^2 \rangle$ is set by the equipartition theorem applied to the collective mass's kinetic energy, with the nonlinear $T$-dependence arising from the $T$-dependence of the collective mass. This lin…
We present extensive numerical results for the thermodynamic density of states (i.e. quantum capacitance) of a two-dimensional massless Dirac fermion fluid in a doped graphene sheet. In particular, by employing the random phase approximation, we quantify the impact of screening exerted by a metal gate located nearby a graphene flake. Finally, we calculate the spin- and circularly-symmetric Landau parameter, which can be experimentally extracted from independent measurements on the same setup of the quantum capacitance and quasiparticle velocity.
We compute the dynamical polarizability of graphene beyond the usual Dirac cone approximation, integrating over the full Brillouin zone. We find deviations at $\hbarω=2t$ ($t$ the hopping parameter) which amount to a logarithmic singularity due to the van Hove singularity and derive an approximate analytical expression. Also at low energies, we find deviations from the results obtained from the Dirac cone approximation which manifest themselves in a peak spitting at arbitrary direction of the incoming wave vector $\q$. Consequences for the plasmon spectrum are discussed.
Using first principles pseudopotential density functional theory calculations, we find that terminating zigzag graphene nanoribbons (ZGNR) with monovalent alkali atoms at a reduced concentration has a dramatic impact on their properties. In particular, using sodium atoms for the saturation of ZGNR edges at half the concentration of edge-carbon atoms make it a one dimensional, perfect semimetal, where the valance and conduction bands meet at only a single, Dirac-like point. Unlike pristine graphene, the Dirac-"cones" of Na-ZGNR is not symmetric with respect to wave vector, but rather it is tilt…
We investigate the quantum tunneling of electrons in an AA-stacked bilayer graphene (BLG) $n$-$p$ junction and $n$-$p$-$n$ junction. We show that Klein tunneling of an electron can occur in this system. The quasiparticles are not only chiral but are additionally described by a `cone index'. Due to the orthogonality of states with different cone indexes, electron transport across a potential barrier must strictly conserve the cone index and this leads to the protected cone transport which is unique in AA-stacked BLG. Together with the negative refraction of electrons, electrons residing in diff…
We study the electronic structures of ABA (Bernal) stacked multilayer graphenes in uniform perpendicular electric field, and show that the interplay of the trigonal warping and the potential asymmetry gives rise to a number of emergent Dirac cones nearly touching at zero energy. The band velocity and the energy region (typically a few tens of meV) of these gate-induced Dirac cones are tunable with the external electric field. In ABA trilayer graphene, in particular, applying an electric field induces a non-trivial valley Hall state, where the energy gap at the Dirac point is filled by chiral e…
Angle-resolved photoemission and X-ray diffraction experiments show that multilayer epitaxial graphene grown on the SiC(000-1) surface is a new form of carbon that is composed of effectively isolated graphene sheets. The unique rotational stacking of these films cause adjacent graphene layers to electronically decouple leading to a set of nearly independent linearly dispersing bands (Dirac cones) at the graphene K-point. Each cone corresponds to an individual macro-scale graphene sheet in a multilayer stack where AB-stacked sheets can be considered as low density faults.
The fluctuations of the electromagnetic vacuum are one of the most powerful manifestations of the quantum structure of nature. Their effect on the Dirac electrons of graphene is known to induce some spectacular and purely quantistic phenomena, like the Casimir and the Aharanov--Bohm effects. In this work we demonstrate, by using a first principles approach, that the Dirac cone of graphene is also affected by a sizable Lamb shift.We show that the microscopic electronic currents flowing on the graphene plane couple efficiently with the vacuum fluctuations causing a renormalization of the electro…
The quasi-2D electrons in graphene behave as massless fermions obeying a Dirac-Weyl equation in the low-energy regime near the two Fermi points. The stability of spin-polarized phases (SPP) in graphene is considered. The exchange energy is evaluated from the analytic pair-distribution functions, and the correlation energies are estimated via a closely similar four-component 2D electron fluid which has been investigated previously. SPPs appear for sufficiently high doping, when the exchange energy alone is considered. However, the inclusion of correlations is found to {\it suppress} the spin-ph…
The virial theorem for a system of interacting electrons in a crystal, which is described within the framework of the tight-binding model, is derived. We show that, in particular case of interacting massless electrons in graphene and other Dirac materials, the conventional virial theorem is violated. Starting from the tight-binding model, we derive the generalized virial theorem for Dirac electron systems, which contains an additional term associated with a momentum cutoff at the bottom of the energy band. Additionally, we derive the generalized virial theorem within the Dirac model using the …
Graphene thermionic electron emission across high-interface-barrier involves energetic electrons residing far away from the Dirac point where the Dirac cone approximation of the band structure breaks down. Here we construct a full-band model beyond the simple Dirac cone approximation for the thermionic injection of high-energy electrons in graphene. We show that the thermionic emission model based on the Dirac cone approximation is valid only in the graphene/semiconductor Schottky interface operating near room temperature, but breaks down in the cases involving high-energy electrons, such as g…
The symmetries that protect massless Dirac fermions from a gap opening may become ineffective if the Dirac equation is discretized in space and time, either because of scattering between multiple Dirac cones in the Brillouin zone (fermion doubling) or because of singularities at zone boundaries. Here we introduce an implementation of Dirac fermions on a space-time lattice that removes both obstructions. The quasi-energy band structure has a tangent dispersion with a single Dirac cone that cannot be gapped without breaking both time-reversal and chiral symmetries. We show that this topological …
We reexamine the electronic structure of graphene on SiC substrate by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. We directly observed multiply cloning of Dirac cone, in addition to ones previously attributed to reconstruction. The locations, relative distances and anisotropy of Dirac cone replicas fully agree with the moiré pattern of graphene-SiC heterostructure. Our results provide a straightforward example of moiré potential modulation in engineering electronic structure with Dirac fermions.
Using the Lewis-Riesenfeld method of invariants we construct explicit analytical solutions for the massless Dirac equation in 2+1 dimensions describing quasi-particles in graphene. The Hamiltonian of the system considered contains some explicit time-dependence in addition to one resulting from being minimally coupled to a time-dependent magnetic field. The eigenvalue equations for the two spinor components of the Lewis-Riesenfeld invariant are found to decouple into a pair of supersymmetric invariants in a similar fashion as the known decoupling for the time-independent Dirac Hamiltonians.
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 The…
Graphene flakes placed on hexagonal boron nitride feature in the presence of a magnetic field a complex electronic structure due to a hexagonal moiré potential resulting from the van der Waals interaction with the substrate. The slight lattice mismatch gives rise to a periodic supercell potential. Zone folding is expected to create replica of the original Dirac cone and Hofstadter butterflies. Our large-scale tight binding simulation reveals an unexpected coexistence of a relativistic and non-relativistic Landau level structure. The presence of the zeroth Landau level and its associated butter…
We examine how the misorientation of a few stacked graphene layers affects the electronic structure of carbon nanosystems. We present {\it ab initio} calculations on bi- and trilayer systems to demonstrate that the massless Fermion behavior typical of single layered graphene is also found in incommensurate multilayered graphitic systems. We also investigate the consequences of this property on experimental fingerprints, such as Raman spectroscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Our simulations reveal that STM images of turbostratic few layer graphite are sensitive to the layer arrange…
In the 2016 experiment by Crossno et al. [Science 351, 1058 (2016)], electronic contribution to the thermal conductivity of graphene was found to violate the well-known Wiedemann-Franz (WF) law for metals. At liquid nitrogen temperatures, the thermal to electrical conductivity ratio of charge-neutral samples was more than 10 times higher than predicted by the WF law, what was attributed to interactions between particles leading to collective behavior described by hydrodynamics. Here we show, by adapting the handbook derivation of the WF law to the case of massless Dirac fermions, that signific…
By considering analytical expressions for the self-energies of intervalley and intravalley phonons in graphene, we describe the behavior of D, 2D, and D$'$ Raman bands with changes in doping ($μ$) and light excitation energy ($E_L$). Comparing the self-energy with the observed $μ$ dependence of the 2D bandwidth, we estimate the wavevector $q$ of the constituent intervalley phonon at $\hbar vq\simeq E_L/1.6$ ($v$ is electron's Fermi velocity) and conclude that the self-energy makes a major contribution (60%) to the dispersive behavior of the D and 2D bands. The estimation of $q$ is based on an …
The Born-Oppenheimer approximation (BO) has proven effective for the accurate determination of chemical reactions, molecular dynamics and phonon frequencies in a wide range of metallic systems. Graphene, recently discovered in the free state, is a zero band-gap semiconductor, which becomes a metal if the Fermi energy is tuned applying a gate-voltage Vg. Graphene electrons near the Fermi energy have twodimensional massless dispersions, described by Dirac cones. Here we show that a change in Vg induces a stiffening of the Raman G peak (i.e. the zone-center E2g optical phonon), which cannot be de…
We calculate the nuclear spin-lattice relaxation time and the Knight shift for the case of gapped graphene systems. Our calculations consider both the massive and massless gap scenarios. Both the spin-lattice relaxation time and the Knight shift depend on temperature, chemical potential, and the value of the electronic energy gap. In particular, at the Dirac point, the electronic energy gap has stronger effects on the system nuclear magnetic resonance parameters in the case of the massless gap scenario. Differently, at large values of the chemical potential, both gap scenarios behave in a simi…
The wavefunction of massless Dirac fermions is a two-component spinor. In graphene, a one-atom-thick film showing two-dimensional Dirac-like electronic excitations, the two-component representation reflects the amplitude of the electron wavefunction on the A and B sublattices. This unique property provides unprecedented opportunities to image the two components of massless Dirac fermions spatially. Here we report atomic resolution imaging of the two-component Dirac-Landau levels in a gapped graphene monolayer by scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy. A gap of about 20 meV, driven by …
Graphene, a single sheet of graphite with honeycomb lattice structure, has massless carriers with tunable density and polarity. We investigate the ground state phase diagram of two graphene sheets (embedded in a dielectric) separated by distance $d$ where the top layer has electrons and the bottom layer has holes, using mean-field theory. We find that a uniform excitonic condensate occurs over a large range of carrier densities and is weakly dependent on the relative orientation of the two sheets. We obtain the excitonic gap, quasiparticle energy and the density of states. We show that both, t…
The fractal spectrum of magnetic minibands (Hofstadter butterfly), induced by the moiré super- lattice of graphene on an hexagonal crystal substrate, is known to exhibit gapped Dirac cones. We show that the gap can be closed by slightly misaligning the substrate, producing a hierarchy of conical singularities (Dirac points) in the band structure at rational values Phi = (p/q)(h/e) of the magnetic flux per supercell. Each Dirac point signals a switch of the topological quantum number in the connected component of the quantum Hall phase diagram. Model calculations reveal the scale invariant cond…
The wavefunction of a massless fermion consists of two chiralities, left-handed and right-handed, which are eigenstates of the chiral operator. The theory of weak interactions of elementally particle physics is not symmetric about the two chiralities, and such a symmetry breaking theory is referred to as a chiral gauge theory. The chiral gauge theory can be applied to the massless Dirac particles of graphene. In this paper we show within the framework of the chiral gauge theory for graphene that a topological soliton exists near the boundary of a graphene nanoribbon in the presence of a strain…
In this paper we systemically study the optical conductivity and density of states of disorded graphene beyond the Dirac cone approximation. The optical conductivity of graphene is computed by using the Kubo formula, within the framework of a full π-band tight-binding model. Different types of non-correlated and correlated disorders are considered, such as random or Gaussian potentials, random or Gaussian nearest-neighbor hopping parameters, randomly distributed vacancies or their clusters, and random adsorbed hydrogen atoms or their clusters. For a large enough concentration of resonant impur…
In this paper we study the excitation spectrum of graphene in a strong magnetic field, beyond the Dirac cone approximation. The dynamical polarizability is obtained using a full $π$-band tight-binding model where the effect of the magnetic field is accounted for by means of the Peierls substitution. The effect of electron-electron interaction is considered within the random phase approximation, from which we obtain the dressed polarization function and the dielectric function. The range of validity of the Landau level quantization within the continuum approximation is studied, as well as the n…
The polarization function of electrons with the tilted Dirac cone found in organic conductors is studied using the tilted Weyl equation. The dynamical property is explored based on the analytical treatment of the particle-hole excitation. It is shown that the polarization function as the function of both the frequency and the momentum exhibits cusps and nonmonotonic structures. The polarization function depends not only on the magnitude but also the direction of the external momentum. These properties are characteristic of the tilted Dirac cone, and are contrast to the isotropic case of graphe…
