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A. H. Castro Neto

Publications and source records attributed to A. H. Castro Neto.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
arXiv2009

Observation of the Kohn anomaly near the K point of bilayer graphene

The dispersion of electrons and phonons near the K point of bilayer graphene was investigated in a resonant Raman study using different laser excitation energies in the near infrared and visible range. The electronic structure was analyzed within the tight-binding approximation, and the Slonczewski-Weiss-McClure (SWM) parameters were obtained from the analysis of the dispersive behavior of the Raman features. A softening of the phonon branches was observed near the K point, and results evidence the Kohn anomaly and the importance of considering electron-phonon and electron-electron interactions to correctly describe the phonon dispersion in graphene systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2009

A tight-binding approach to uniaxial strain in graphene

We analyze the effect of tensional strain in the electronic structure of graphene. In the absence of electron-electron interactions, within linear elasticity theory, and a tight-binding approach, we observe that strain can generate a bulk spectral gap. However this gap is critical, requiring threshold deformations in excess of 20%, and only along preferred directions with respect to the underlying lattice. The gapless Dirac spectrum is robust for small and moderate deformations, and the gap appears as a consequence of the merging of the two inequivalent Dirac points, only under considerable deformations of the lattice. We discuss how strain-induced anisotropy and local deformations can be used as a means to affect transport characteristics and pinch off current flow in graphene devices.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2009

Lenosky's energy and the phonon dispersion of graphene

We calculate the phonon spectrum for a graphene sheet resulting from the model proposed by T. Lenosky et al. (Nature 355, 333 (1992)) for the free energy of the lattice. This model takes into account not only the usual bond bending and stretching terms, but captures the possible misalignment of the pz orbitals. We compare our results with previous models used in the literature and with available experimental data. We show that while this model provides an excellent description of the flexural modes in graphene, an extra term in the energy is needed for it to be able to reproduce the full phonon dispersion correctly beyond the Gamma point.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2009

1/N Expansion in Correlated Graphene

We examine the 1/N expansion, where N is the number of two-component Dirac fermions, for Coulomb interactions in graphene with a gap of magnitude $Δ= 2 m$. We find that for $Nα\gg1$, where $α$ is graphene's "fine structure constant", there is a crossover as a function of distance $r$ from the usual 3D Coulomb law, $V(r) \sim 1/r$, to a 2D Coulomb interaction, $V(r) \sim \ln(Nα/mr)$, for $m^{-1} \ll r \ll m^{-1} N α/6$. This effect reflects the weak "confinement" of the electric field in the graphene plane. The crossover also leads to unusual renormalization of the quasiparticle velocity and gap at low momenta. We also discuss the differences between the interaction potential in gapped graphene and usual QED for different coupling regimes.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2009

Strained graphene: tight-binding and density functional calculations

We determine the band structure of graphene under strain using density functional calculations. The ab-initio band strucure is then used to extract the best fit to the tight-binding hopping parameters used in a recent microscopic model of strained graphene. It is found that the hopping parameters may increase or decrease upon increasing strain, depending on the orientation of the applied stress. The fitted values are compared with an available parametrization for the dependence of the orbital overlap on the distance separating the two carbon atoms. It is also found that strain does not induce a gap in graphene, at least for deformations up to 10%.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2009

Electron-electron interactions in graphene bilayers

We study the effect of electron-electron interactions in the quasiparticle dispersion of a graphene bilayer within the Hartree-Fock-Thomas-Fermi theory by using a four-bands model. We find that the electronic fluid can be described by a non-interacting-like dispersion but with renormalized parameters. We compare our results with recent cyclotron resonance experiments in this system.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2009

Impurity induced spin-orbit coupling in graphene

We study the effect of impurities in inducing spin-orbit coupling in graphene. We show that the sp3 distortion induced by an impurity can lead to a large increase in the spin-orbit coupling with a value comparable to the one found in diamond and other zinc-blende semiconductors. The spin-flip scattering produced by the impurity leads to spin scattering lengths of the order found in recent experiments. Our results indicate that the spin-orbit coupling can be controlled via the impurity coverage.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2008

Distortion of the perfect lattice structure in bilayer graphene

We consider the instability of bilayer graphene with respect to a distorted configuration in the same spirit as the model introduced by Su, Schrieffer and Heeger. By computing the total energy of a distorted bilayer, we conclude that the ground state of the system favors a finite distortion. We explore how the equilibrium configuration changes with carrier density and an applied potential difference between the two layers.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2008

Conductivity of suspended and non-suspended graphene at finite gate voltage

We compute the DC and the optical conductivity of graphene for finite values of the chemical potential by taking into account the effect of disorder, due to mid-gap states (unitary scatterers) and charged impurities, and the effect of both optical and acoustic phonons. The disorder due to mid-gap states is treated in the coherent potential approximation (CPA, a self-consistent approach based on the Dyson equation), whereas that due to charged impurities is also treated via the Dyson equation, with the self-energy computed using second order perturbation theory. The effect of the phonons is also included via the Dyson equation, with the self energy computed using first order perturbation theory. The self-energy due to phonons is computed both using the bare electronic Green's function and the full electronic Green's function, although we show that the effect of disorder on the phonon-propagator is negligible. Our results are in qualitative agreement with recent experiments. Quantitative agreement could be obtained if one assumes water molelcules under the graphene substrate. We also comment on the electron-hole asymmetry observed in the DC conductivity of suspended graphene.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2008

f-Sum Rule and Unconventional Spectral Weight Transfer in Graphene

We derive and analyze the f-sum rule for a two-dimensional (2D) system of interacting electrons whose behavior is described by the Dirac equation. We apply the sum rule to analyze the spectral weight transfer in graphene within different approximations discussed in the literature. We find that the sum rule is generically dominated by inter-band transitions while other excitations produce sub-leading behavior. The f-sum rule provides strong constraints for theories of interacting electrons in graphene.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2008

Localized Magnetic States in Graphene

We examine the conditions necessary for the presence of localized magnetic moments on adatoms with inner shell electrons in graphene. We show that the low density of states at the Dirac point, and the anomalous broadening of the adatom electronic level,lead to the formation of magnetic moments for arbitrarily small local charging energy. As a result, we obtain an anomalous scaling of the boundary separating magnetic and non-magnetic states. We show that, unlike any other material, the formation of magnetic moments can be controlled by an electric field effect.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2008

Supercritical Coulomb Impurities in Gapped Graphene

We study the problem of Coulomb field-induced charging of the ground state in a system of 2D massive Dirac particles (gapped graphene). As in its 3D QED counterpart, the critical Coulomb coupling is renormalized to higher values, compared to the massless case. We find that in gapped graphene a novel supercritical regime is possible, where the screening charge is comparable to the impurity charge, thus leading to suppression of the Coulomb field at nanometer scales. We corroborate this with numerical solution of the tight-binding problem in the honeycomb lattice.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2008

Electron-Electron Interactions in the Vacuum Polarization of Graphene

We discuss the effect of electron-electron interactions on the static polarization properties of graphene beyond RPA. Divergent self-energy corrections are naturally absorbed into the renormalized coupling constant $α$. We find that the lowest order vertex correction, which is the first non-trivial correlation contribution, is finite, and about 30% of the RPA result at strong coupling $α\sim 1$. The vertex correction leads to further reduction of the effective charge. Finite contributions to dielectric screening are expected in all orders of perturbation theory.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2008

Origin of the energy bandgap in epitaxial graphene

We studied the effect of quantum confinement on the size of the band gap in single layer epitaxial graphene. Samples with different graphene terrace sizes are studied by using low energy electron microscopy (LEEM) and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). The direct correlation between the terrace size extracted from LEEM and the gap size extracted from ARPES shows that quantum confinement alone cannot account for the large gap observed in epitaxial graphene samples.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2008

Mean Field study of the heavy fermion metamagnetic transition

We investigate the evolution of the heavy fermion ground state under application of a strong external magnetic field. We present a richer version of the usual hybridization mean field theory that allows for hybridization in both the singlet and triplet channels and incorporates a self-consistent Weiss field. We show that for a magnetic field strength B*, a filling-dependent fraction of the zero-field hybridization gap, the spin up quasiparticle band becomes fully polarized--an event marked by a sudden jump in the magnetic susceptibility. The system exhibits a kind of quantum rigidity in which the susceptibility (and several other physical observables) are insensitive to further increases in field strength. This behavior ends abruptly with the collapse of the hybridization order parameter in a first-order transition to the normal metallic state. We argue that the feature at B* corresponds to the "metamagnetic transition" in YbRh2Si2. Our results are in good agreement with recent experimental measurements.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2008

Electronic compressibility of a graphene bilayer

We calculate the electronic compressibility arising from electron-electron interactions for a graphene bilayer within the Hartree-Fock approximation. We show that, due to the chiral nature of the particles in this system, the compressibility is rather different from those of either the two-dimensional electron gas or ordinary semiconductors. We find that an inherent competition between the contributions coming from intra-band exchange interactions (dominant at low densities) and inter-band interactions (dominant at moderate densities) leads to a non-monotonic behavior of the compressibility as a function of carrier density.

cond-mat.str-el↗