arXiv subjects

Hongki Min

Publications and source records attributed to Hongki Min.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2014

Inelastic carrier lifetime in a coupled graphene electron-phonon system: Role of plasmon-phonon coupling

We calculate the inelastic scattering rates and the hot electron inelastic mean free paths for both monolayer and bilayer graphene on a polar substrate. We study the quasiparticle self-energy by taking into account both electron-electron and electron-surface optical (SO) phonon interactions. In this calculation the leading order dynamic screening approximation (G$_0$W approximation) is used to obtain the quasiparticle self-energy by treating electrons and phonons on an equal footing. We find that the strong coupling between the SO phonon and plasmon leads to a new decay channel for the quasiparticle through the emission of the coupled mode, and gives rise to an abrupt increase in the scattering rate, which is absent in the uncoupled system. In monolayer graphene a single jump in the scattering rate occurs, arising from the emission of the low energy branch of the coupled plasmon-phonon modes. In bilayer graphene the emission of both low and high energy branches of the coupled modes contributes to the scattering rate and gives rise to two abrupt changes in the scattering rate. The jumps in the scattering rate can be potentially used in the hot electron device such as switching devices and oscillators.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Carrier screening, transport, and relaxation in 3D Dirac semimetals

A theory is developed for the density and temperature dependent carrier conductivity in doped three-dimensional (3D) Dirac materials focusing on resistive scattering from screened Coulomb disorder due to random charged impurities (e.g., dopant ions and unintentional background impurities). The theory applies both in the undoped intrinsic ("high-temperature", $T \gg T_F$) and the doped extrinsic ("low-temperature", $T \ll T_F$) limit with analytical scaling properties for the carrier conductivity obtained in both regimes, where $T_F$ is the Fermi temperature corresponding to the doped free carrier density (electrons or holes). The scaling properties describing how the conductivity depends on the density and temperature can be used to establish the Dirac nature of 3D systems through transport measurements. We also consider the temperature dependent conductivity limited by the acoustic phonon scattering in 3D Dirac materials. In addition, we theoretically calculate and compare the single particle relaxation time $\tas$, defining the quantum level broadening, and the transport scattering time $\tat$, defining the conductivity, in the presence of screened charged impurity scattering. A critical quantitative analysis of the $\tat/\tas$ results for 3D Dirac materials in the presence of long-range screened Coulomb disorder is provided.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Polarizability and Screening in Chiral Multilayer Graphene

We calculate the static polarizability of multilayer graphene and study the effect of stacking arrangement, carrier density, and onsite energy difference on graphene screening properties. At low densities, the energy spectrum of multilayer graphene is described by a set of chiral two-dimensional electron systems and the associated chiral nature determines the screening properties of multilayer graphene showing very different behavior depending on whether the chirality index is even or odd. As density increases, the energy spectrum follows that of the monolayer graphene and thus the polarizability approaches that of monolayer graphene. The qualitative dependence of graphene polarizability on chirality and layering indicates the possibility of distinct graphene quantum phases as a function of the chirality index.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

Competing Ordered States in Bilayer Graphene

We use a perturbative renormalization group approach with short-range continuum model interactions to analyze the competition between isotropic gapped and anisotropic gapless ordered states in bilayer graphene, commenting specifically on the role of exchange and on the importance of spin and valley flavor degeneracy. By comparing the divergences of the corresponding susceptibilities, we conclude that this approach predicts gapped states for flavor numbers N=1,2,4. We also comment briefly on the related gapped states expected in chiral (ABC) trilayer graphene.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Interplay between phonon and impurity scattering in 2D hole transport

We investigate temperature dependent transport properties of two-dimensional p-GaAs systems taking into account both hole-phonon and hole-impurity scattering effects. By analyzing the hole mobility data of p-GaAs in the temperature range 10 K$<T<$100 K, we estimate the value of the appropriate deformation potential for hole-phonon coupling. Due to the interplay between hole-phonon and hole-impurity scattering the calculated temperature-dependent resistivity shows interesting nonmonotonic behavior. In particular, we find that there is a temperature range (typically 2 K$<T<$10 K) in which the calculated resistivity becomes independent of temperature due to a subtle cancellation between the temperature dependent resistive scattering contributions arising from impurities and phonons. This resistivity saturation regime appears at low carrier densities when the increasing resistivity due to phonon scattering compensates for the decreasing resistivity due to the nondegeneracy effect. This temperature-independent flat resistivity regime is experimentally accessible and may have already been observed in a recent experiment.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

Comparison of microscopic models for disorder in bilayer graphene: Implications for the density of states and the optical conductivity

We study the effects of disorder on bilayer graphene using four different microscopic models and directly compare their results. We compute the self-energy, density of states, and optical conductivity in the presence of short-ranged scatterers and screened Coulomb impurities, using both the Born approximation and self-consistent Born approximation for the self-energy. We also include a finite interlayer potential asymmetry which generates a gap between the valence and conduction bands. We find that the qualitative behavior of the two scattering potentials are similar, but that the choice of approximation for the self-energy leads to important differences near the band edge in the gapped case. Finally, we describe how these differences manifest in the measurement of the band gap in optical and transport experimental techniques.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Optical and transport gaps in gated bilayer graphene

We discuss the effect of disorder on the band gap measured in bilayer graphene in optical and transport experiments. By calculating the optical conductivity and density of states using a microscopic model in the presence of disorder, we demonstrate that the gap associated with transport experiments is smaller than that associated with optical experiments. Intrinsic bilayer graphene has an optical conductivity in which the energy of the peaks associated with the interband transition are very robust against disorder and thus provide an estimate of the band gap. In contrast, extraction of the band gap from the optical conductivity of extrinsic bilayer graphene is almost impossible for significant levels of disorder due to the ambiguity of the transition peaks. The density of states contains an upper bound on the gap measured in transport experiments, and disorder has the effect of reducing this gap which explains why these experiments have so far been unable to replicate the large band gaps seen in optical measurements.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Edge Saturation effects on the magnetism and band gaps in multilayer graphene ribbons and flakes

Using a density functional theory based electronic structure method and semi-local density approximation, we study the interplay of geometric confinement, magnetism and external electric fields on the electronic structure and the resulting band gaps of multilayer graphene ribbons whose edges are saturated with molecular hydrogen (H$_2$) or hydroxyl (OH) groups. We discuss the similarities and differences of computed features in comparison with the atomic hydrogen (or H-) saturated ribbons and flakes. For H$_2$ edge-saturation, we find \emph{shifted} labeling of three armchair ribbon classes and magnetic to non-magnetic transition in narrow zigzag ribbons whose critical width changes with the number of layers. Other computed characteristics, such as the existence of a critical gap and external electric field behavior, layer dependent electronic structure, stacking-dependent band gap induction and the length confinement effects remain qualitatively same with those of H-saturated ribbons.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2011

Landau Levels and Band Bending in Few-Layer Epitaxial Graphene

The carrier density distributions in few-layer-graphene systems grown on the carbon face of silicon carbide can be altered by the presence of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) tip used to probe top-layer electronic properties, and by a perpendicular magnetic field which induces well-defined Landau levels. Hartree approximation calculations in the perpendicular field case show that charge tends to rearrange between the layers so that the filling factors of most layers are pinned at integer values. We use our analysis to provide insight into the role of buried layers in recent few-layer-graphene STM studies and discuss the limitations of our model.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Chirality-dependent phonon-limited resistivity in multiple layers of graphene

We develop a theory for the temperature and density dependence of phonon-limited resistivity $ρ(T)$ in bilayer and multilayer graphene, and compare with the corresponding monolayer result. For the unscreened case, we find $ρ\approx C T$ with $C \propto v_{\rm F}^{-2}$ in the high-temperature limit, and $ρ\approx A T^4$ with $A \propto v_{\rm F}^{-2} k_{\rm F}^{-3}$ in the low-temperature Bloch-Grüneisen limit, where $v_{\rm F}$ and $k_{\rm F}$ are Fermi velocity and Fermi wavevector, respectively. If screening effects are taken into account, $ρ\approx C T$ in the high-temperature limit with a renormalized $C$ which is a function of the screening length, and $ρ\approx A T^6$ in the low-temperature limit with $A \propto k_{\rm F}^{-5}$ but independent of $v_{\rm F}$. These relations hold in general with $v_{\rm F}$ and a chiral factor in $C$ determined by the specific chiral band structure for a given density.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2011

Semiclassical Boltzmann transport theory for graphene multilayers

We calculate the conductivity of arbitrarily stacked multilayer graphene sheets within a relaxation time approximation, considering both short-range and long-range impurities. We theoretically investigate the feasibility of identifying the stacking order of these multilayers using transport measurements. For relatively clean samples, the conductivities of the various stacking configurations depend on the carrier density as a power-law for over two decades. This dependence arises from a low density decomposition of the multilayer band structure into a sum of chiral Hamiltonians. For dirty samples, the simple power-law relationship no longer holds. Nonetheless, identification of the number of layers and stacking sequence is still possible by careful comparison of experimental data to the results presented here.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Effects of disorder on magnetic vortex gyration

A vortex gyrating in a magnetic disk has two regimes of motion in the presence of disorder. At large gyration amplitudes, the vortex core moves quasi-freely through the disorder potential. As the amplitude decreases, the core can become pinned at a particular point in the potential and precess with a significantly increased frequency. In the pinned regime, the amplitude of the gyration decreases more rapidly than it does at larger precession amplitudes in the quasi-free regime. In part, this decreased decay time is due to an increase in the effective damping constant and in part due to geometric distortion of the vortex. A simple model with a single pinning potential illustrates these two contributions.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Electronic structure of multilayer graphene

We study the electronic structure of multilayer graphene using a $π$-orbital continuum model with nearest-neighbor intralayer and interlayer tunneling. Using degenerate state perturbation theory, we show that the low-energy electronic structure of arbitrarily stacked graphene multilayers consists of chiral pseudospin doublets with a conserved chirality sum.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Effects of edge magnetism and external electric field on energy gaps in multilayer graphene nanoribbons

Using first-principles density-functional theory, we study the electronic structure of multilayer graphene nanoribbons as a function of the ribbon width and the external electric field, applied perpendicular to the ribbon layers. We consider two types of edges (armchair and zigzag), each with two edge alignments (referred to as alpha- and beta-alignments). We show that, as in monolayer and bilayer armchair nanoribbons, multilayer armchair nanoribbons exhibit three classes of energy gaps which decrease with increasing width. Nonmagnetic multilayer zigzag nanoribbons have band structures that are sensitive to the edge alignments and the number of layers, indicating different magnetic properties and resulting energy gaps. We find that energy gaps can be induced in ABC-stacked ribbons with a perpendicular external electric field while in other stacking sequences, the gaps decrease or remain closed as the external electric field increases.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2010

Effects of Disorder and Internal Dynamics on Vortex Wall Propagation

Experimental measurements of domain wall propagation are typically interpreted by comparison to reduced models that ignore both the effects of disorder and the internal dynamics of the domain wall structure. Using micromagnetic simulations, we study vortex wall propagation in magnetic nanowires induced by fields or currents in the presence of disorder. We show that the disorder leads to increases and decreases in the domain wall velocity depending on the conditions. These results can be understood in terms of an effective damping that increases as disorder increases. As a domain wall moves through disorder, internal degrees of freedom get excited, increasing the energy dissipation rate.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Band Structure of ABC-Stacked Graphene Trilayers

The ABC-stacked N-layer-graphene family of two-dimensional electron systems is described at low energies by two remarkably flat bands with Bloch states that have strongly momentum-dependent phase differences between carbon pi-orbital amplitudes on different layers, and large associated momentum space Berry phases. These properties are most easily understood using a simplified model with only nearest-neighbor inter-layer hopping which leads to gapless semiconductor electronic structure, with p^N dispersion in both conduction and valence bands. We report on a study of the electronic band structures of trilayers which uses ab initio density functional theory and k*p theory to fit the parameters of a pi-band tight-binding model. We find that when remote interlayer hopping is retained, the triple Dirac point of the simplified model is split into three single Dirac points located along the three KM directions. External potential differences between top and bottom layers are strongly screened by charge transfer within the trilayer, but still open an energy gap at overall neutrality.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2010

Effects of magnetism and electric field on the energy gap of bilayer graphene nanoflakes

We study the effect of magnetism and perpendicular external electric field strengths on the energy gap of length confined bilayer graphene nanoribbons (or nanoflakes) as a function of ribbon width and length using a \textit{first principles} density functional electronic structure method and a semi-local exchange-correlation approximation. We assume AB (Bernal) bilayer stacking and consider both armchair and zigzag edges, and for each edge type, we consider the two edge alignments, namely, $α$ and $β$ edge alignment. For the armchair nanoflakes we identify three distinct classes of bilayer energy gaps, determined by the number of carbon chains in the width direction ({\it N} = 3{\it p}, 3{\it p}+1 and 3{\it p}+2, {\it p} is an integer), and the gaps decrease with increasing width except for class 3{\it p}+2 armchair nanoribbons. Metallic-like behavior seen in armchair bilayer nanoribbons are found to be absent in armchair nanoflakes. Class 3{\it p}+2 armchair nanoflakes show significant length dependence. We find that the gaps decrease with the applied electric fields due to large intrinsic gap of the nanoflake. The existence of a critical gap with respect to the applied field, therefore, is not predicted by our calculations. Magnetism between the layers plays a major role in enhancing the gap values resulting from the geometrical confinement, hinting at an interplay of magnetism and geometrical confinement in finite size bilayer graphene.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2009

Origin of Universal Optical Conductivity and Optical Stacking Sequence Identification in Multilayer Graphene

We show that the origin of the universal optical conductivity in a normal $N$-layer graphene multilayer is an emergent chiral symmetry which guarantees that $σ(ω)=Nσ_{uni}$ in both low and high frequency limits. [$σ_{uni}=(π/2) e^2/h$]. We use this physics to relate intermediate frequency conductivity trends to qualitative characteristics of the multilayer stacking sequence.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗