Complex evolution of the electronic structure from polycrystalline to monocrystalline graphene: generation of a new Dirac point

Abstract

First principles calculations, employed to address the properties of polycrystalline graphene, indicate that the electronic structure of tilt grain boundaries in this system displays a rather complex evolution towards graphene bulk, as the tilt angle decreases, with the generation of a new Dirac point at the Fermi level, and an anisotropic Dirac cone of low energy excitations. Moreover, the usual Dirac point at the {\bf K} point falls below the Fermi level, and rises towards it as the tilt angle decreases. Further, our calculations indicate that the grain-boundary formation energy behaves non-monotonically with the tilt angle, due to a change in the the spatial distribution and relative contributions of the bond-stretching and bond-bending deformations associated with the formation of the defect.