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María A. H. Vozmediano

Publications and source records attributed to María A. H. Vozmediano.

36 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Hall viscosity from elastic gauge fields in Dirac crystals

The combination of Dirac physics and elasticity has been explored at length in graphene where the so--called "elastic gauge fields" have given rise to an entire new field of research and applications: Straintronics. The fact that these elastic fields couple to fermions as the electromagnetic field, implies that many electromagnetic responses will have elastic counterparts not explored before. In this work we will first show that the presence of elastic gauge fields will be the rule rather than the exception in most of the topologically non--trivial materials in two and three dimensions. In particular we will extract the elastic gauge fields associated to the recently observed Weyl semimetals, the "three dimensional graphene". As it is known, quantum electrodynamics suffers from the chiral anomaly whose consequences have been recently explored in matter systems. We will show that, associated to the physics of the anomalies, and as a counterpart of the Hall conductivity, elastic materials will have a Hall viscosity in two and three dimensions with a coefficient orders of magnitude bigger than the previously studied response. The magnitude and generality of the new effect will greatly improve the chances for the experimental observation of this topological, non dissipative response.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Generalized effective hamiltonian for graphene under non-uniform strain

We use a symmetry approach to construct a systematic derivative expansion of the low energy effective Hamiltonian modifying the continuum Dirac description of graphene in the presence of non-uniform elastic deformations. We extract all experimentally relevant terms and describe their physical significance. Among them there is a new gap-opening term that describes the Zeeman coupling of the elastic pseudomagnetic field and the pseudospin. We determine the value of the couplings using a generalized tight binding model.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Gauge fields from strain in graphene

We revise the tight binding approach to strained or curved graphene in the presence of external probes such as Photoemission or Scanning Tunneling Microscopy experiments. We show that extra terms arise in the continuum limit of the tight binding Hamiltonian which can not be accounted for by changes in the hopping parameters due to lattice deformations, encoded in the parameter β. These material independent extra couplings are of the same order of magnitude as the standard ones and have a geometric origin. They include corrections to the position-dependent Fermi velocity and to a new vector field. We show that the new vector field does not couple to electrons like a standard gauge field and that no ? β-independent pseudomagnetic fields exist in strained graphene.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Vacancy induced zero energy modes in graphene stacks: The case of ABC trilayer

The zero energy modes induced by vacancies in ABC stacked trilayer graphene are investigated. Depending on the position of the vacancy, a new zero energy solution is realised, different from those obtained in multilayer compounds with Bernal stacking. The electronic modification induced in the sample by the new vacancy states is characterised by computing the local density of states and their localisation properties are studied by the inverse participation ratio. We also analyse the situation in the presence of a gap in the spectrum due to a perpendicular electric field.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

Topological Fermi liquids from Coulomb interactions in the doped Honeycomb lattice

We get an anomalous Hall metallic state in the Honeycomb lattice with nearest neighbors only arising as a spontaneously broken symmetry state from a local nearest neighbor Coulomb interaction V . The key ingredient is to enlarge the unit cell to host six atoms that permits Kekulé distortions and supports self-consistent currents creating non trivial magnetic configurations with total zero flux. We find within a variational mean field approach a metallic phase with broken time reversal symmetry (T) very close in parameter space to a Pomeranchuk instability. Within the T broken region the predominant configuration is an anomalous Hall phase with non zero Hall conductivity, a realization of a topological Fermi liquid. A T broken phase with zero Hall conductivity is stable in a small region of the parameter space for lower values of V .

cond-mat.str-el↗

The role of pressure on the magnetism of bilayer graphene

We study the effect of pressure on the localized magnetic moments induced by vacancies in bilayer graphene in the presence of topological defects breaking the bipartite nature of the lattice. By using a mean-field Hubbard model we address the two inequivalent types of vacancies that appear in the Bernal stacking bilayer graphene. We find that by applying pressure in the direction perpendicular to the layers the critical value of the Hubbard interaction needed to polarize the system decreases. The effect is particularly enhanced for one type of vacancies, and admits straightforward generalization to multilayer graphene in Bernal stacking and graphite. The present results clearly demonstrate that the magnetic behavior of multilayer graphene can be affected by mechanical transverse deformation.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

Aharonov-Bohm interferences from local deformations in graphene

One of the most interesting aspects of graphene is the tied relation between structural and electronic properties. The observation of ripples in the graphene samples both free standing and on a substrate has given rise to a very active investigation around the membrane-like properties of graphene and the origin of the ripples remains as one of the most interesting open problems in the system. The interplay of structural and electronic properties is successfully described by the modelling of curvature and elastic deformations by fictitious gauge fields that have become an ex- perimental reality after the suggestion that Landau levels can form associated to strain in graphene and the subsequent experimental confirmation. Here we propose a device to detect microstresses in graphene based on a scanning-tunneling-microscopy setup able to measure Aharonov-Bohm inter- ferences at the nanometer scale. The interferences to be observed in the local density of states are created by the fictitious magnetic field associated to elastic deformations of the sample.

cond-mat.other↗

A new type of vacancy-induced localized states in multilayer graphene

We demonstrate the existence of a new type of zero energy state associated to vacancies in multilayer graphene that has a finite amplitude over the layer with a vacancy and adjacent layers, and the peculiarity of being quasi-localized in the former and totally delocalized in the adjacent ones. In a bilayer, when a gap is induced in the system by applying a perpendicular electric field, these states become truly localized with a normalizable wavefunction. A transition from a localized to an extended state can be tuned by the external gate for experimentally accessible values of parameters.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

Dislocations and torsion in graphene and related systems

A continuum model to study the influence of dislocations on the electronic properties of condensed matter systems is described and analyzed. The model is based on a geometrical formalism that associates a density of dislocations with the torsion tensor and uses the technique of quantum field theory in curved space. When applied to two-dimensional systems with Dirac points like graphene we find that dislocations couple in the form of vector gauge fields similar to these arising from curvature or elastic strain. We also describe the ways to couple dislocations to normal metals with a Fermi surface.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Pinning and switching of magnetic moments in bilayer graphene

We examine the magnetic properties of the localized states induced by lattice vacancies in bilayer graphene with an unrestricted Hartree-Fock calculation. We show that with realistic values of the parameters and for experimentally accessible gate voltages we can have a magnetic switching between an unpolarized and a fully polarized system.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

Magnetic moments in the presence of topological defects in graphene

We study the influence of pentagons, dislocations and other topological defects breaking the sublattice symmetry on the magnetic properties of a graphene lattice in a Hartree Fock mean field scheme. The ground state of the system with a number of vacancies or similar defects belonging to the same sublattice is known to have total spin equal to the number of uncoordinated atoms in the lattice for any value of the Coulomb repulsion U according to the Lieb theorem. We show that the presence of a single pentagonal ring in a large lattice is enough to alter this behavior and a critical value of U is needed to get the polarized ground state. Glide dislocations made of a pentagon-heptagon pair induce more dramatic changes on the lattice and the critical value of U needed to polarize the ground state depends on the density and on the relative position of the defects. We found a region in parameter space where the polarized and unpolarized ground states coexist.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Dislocations in graphene

We study the stability and evolution of various elastic defects in a flat graphene sheet and the electronic properties of the most stable configurations. Two types of dislocations are found to be stable: "glide" dislocations consisting of heptagon-pentagon pairs, and "shuffle" dislocations, an octagon with a dangling bond. Unlike the most studied case of carbon nanotubes, Stone Wales defects are unstable in the planar graphene sheet. Similar defects in which one of the pentagon-heptagon pairs is displaced vertically with respect to the other one are found to be dynamically stable. Shuffle dislocations will give rise to local magnetic moments that can provide an alternative route to magnetism in graphene.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

Charge inhomogeneities due to smooth ripples in graphene sheets

We study the effect of the curved ripples observed in the free standing graphene samples on the electronic structure of the system. We model the ripples as smooth curved bumps and compute the Green's function of the Dirac fermions in the curved surface. Curved regions modify the Fermi velocity that becomes a function of the point on the graphene surface and induce energy dependent oscillations in the local density of states around the position of the bump. The corrections are estimated to be of a few percent of the flat density at the typical energies explored in local probes such as scanning tunnel microscopy that should be able to observe the predicted correlation of the morphology with the electronics. We discuss the connection of the present work with the recent observation of charge anisotropy in graphene and propose that it can be used as an experimental test of the curvature effects.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Existence and topological stability of Fermi points in multilayered graphene

We study the existence and topological stability of Fermi points in a graphene layer and stacks with many layers. We show that the discrete symmetries (spacetime inversion) stabilize the Fermi points in monolayer, bilayer and multilayer graphene with orthorhombic stacking. The bands near $k=0$ and $ε=0$ in multilayers with the Bernal stacking depend on the parity of the number of layers, and Fermi points are unstable when the number of layers is odd. The low energy changes in the electronic structure induced by commensurate perturbations which mix the two Dirac points are also investigated.

cond-mat.str-el↗

A cosmological model for corrugated graphene sheets

Defects play a key role in the electronic structure of graphene layers flat or curved. Topological defects in which an hexagon is replaced by an n-sided polygon generate long range interactions that make them different from vacancies or other potential defects. In this work we review previous models for topological defects in graphene. A formalism is proposed to study the electronic and transport properties of graphene sheets with corrugations as the one recently synthesized. The formalism is based on coupling the Dirac equation that models the low energy electronic excitations of clean flat graphene samples to a curved space. A cosmic string analogy allows to treat an arbitrary number of topological defects located at arbitrary positions on the graphene plane. The usual defects that will always be present in any graphene sample as pentagon-heptagon pairs and Stone-Wales defects are studied as an example. The local density of states around the defects acquires characteristic modulations that could be observed in scanning tunnel and transmission electron microscopy.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Topological defects and electronic properties in graphene

In this work we will focus on the effects produced by topological disorder on the electronic properties of a graphene plane. The presence of this type of disorder induces curvature in the samples of this material, making quite difficult the application of standard techniques of many body quantum theory. Once we understand the nature of these defects, we can apply ideas belonging to quantum field theory in curved space-time and extract information on physical properties that can be measured experimentally.

cond-mat.str-el↗

Effects of topological defects and local curvature on the electronic properties of planar graphene

A formalism is proposed to study the electronic and transport properties of graphene sheets with corrugations as the one recently synthesized. The formalism is based on coupling the Dirac equation that models the low energy electronic excitations of clean flat graphene samples to a curved space. A cosmic string analogy allows to treat an arbitrary number of topological defects located at arbitrary positions on the graphene plane. The usual defects that will always be present in any graphene sample as pentagon-heptagon pairs and Stone-Wales defects are studied as an example. The local density of states around the defects acquires characteristic modulations that could be observed in scanning tunnel and transmission electron microscopy.

cond-mat.str-el↗