Coulomb Interactions and Ferromagnetism in Pure and Doped Graphene

We study the presence of ferromagnetism in the phase diagram of the two-dimensional honeycomb lattice close to half-filling (graphene) as a function of the strength of the Coulomb interaction and doping. We show that exchange interactions between Dirac fermions can stabilize a ferromagnetic phase at low doping when the coupling is sufficiently large. In clean systems, the zero temperature phase diagram shows both first order and second order transition lines and two distinct ferromagnetic phases: one phase with only one type of carriers (either electrons or holes) and another with two types of carriers (electrons and holes). Using the coherent phase approximation (CPA) we argue that disorder further stabilizes the ferromagnetic phase.Comment: 10 pages; published versio

Bilayer graphene: gap tunability and edge properties

Bilayer graphene -- two coupled single graphene layers stacked as in graphite -- provides the only known semiconductor with a gap that can be tuned externally through electric field effect. Here we use a tight binding approach to study how the gap changes with the applied electric field. Within a parallel plate capacitor model and taking into account screening of the external field, we describe real back gated and/or chemically doped bilayer devices. We show that a gap between zero and midinfrared energies can be induced and externally tuned in these devices, making bilayer graphene very appealing from the point of view of applications. However, applications to nanotechnology require careful treatment of the effect of sample boundaries. This being particularly true in graphene, where the presence of edge states at zero energy -- the Fermi level of the undoped system -- has been extensively reported. Here we show that also bilayer graphene supports surface states localized at zigzag edges. The presence of two layers, however, allows for a new type of edge state which shows an enhanced penetration into the bulk and gives rise to band crossing phenomenon inside the gap of the biased bilayer system.Comment: 8 pages, 3 fugures, Proceedings of the International Conference on Theoretical Physics: Dubna-Nano200

Conductance quantization in mesoscopic graphene

Using a generalized Landauer approach we study the non-linear transport in mesoscopic graphene with zig-zag and armchair edges. We find that for clean systems, the low-bias low-temperature conductance, G, of an armchair edge system in quantized as G/t=4 n e^2/h, whereas for a zig-zag edge the quantization changes to G/t t=4(n+1/2)e^2/h, where t is the transmission probability and n is an integer. We also study the effects of a non-zero bias, temperature, and magnetic field on the conductance. The magnetic field dependence of the quantization plateaus in these systems is somewhat different from the one found in the two-dimensional electron gas due to a different Landau level quantization.Comment: 6 pages, 9 figures. Final version published in Physical Review

Localized states at zigzag edges of bilayer graphene

We report the existence of zero energy surface states localized at zigzag edges of bilayer graphene. Working within the tight-binding approximation we derive the analytic solution for the wavefunctions of these peculiar surface states. It is shown that zero energy edge states in bilayer graphene can be divided into two families: (i) states living only on a single plane, equivalent to surface states in monolayer graphene; (ii) states with finite amplitude over the two layers, with an enhanced penetration into the bulk. The bulk and surface (edge) electronic structure of bilayer graphene nanoribbons is also studied, both in the absence and in the presence of a bias voltage between planes.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

NGC 3105: a young open cluster with low metallicity

NGC 3105 is a young open cluster hosting blue, yellow and red supergiants. This rare combination makes it an excellent laboratory to constrain evolutionary models of high-mass stars. It is poorly studied and fundamental parameters such as its age or distance are not well defined. We intend to characterize in an accurate way the cluster as well as its evolved stars, for which we derive for the first time atmospheric parameters and chemical abundances. We identify 126 B-type likely members within a radius of 2.7$\pm$0.6 arcmin, which implies an initial mass, $M_{cl}\approx$4100 M$_{\odot}$. We find a distance of 7.2$\pm$0.7 kpc for NGC 3105, placing it at $R_{GC}$=10.0$\pm$1.2 kpc. Isochrone fitting supports an age of 28$\pm$6 Ma, implying masses around 9.5 M$_{\odot}$ for the supergiants. A high fraction of Be stars ($\approx$25 %) is found at the top of the main sequence down to spectral type b3. From the spectral analysis we estimate for the cluster a $v_{rad}$=+46.9$\pm$0.9 km s$^{-1}$ and a low metallicity, [Fe/H]=-0.29$\pm$0.22. We also have determined, for the first time, chemical abundances for Li, O, Na, Mg, Si, Ca, Ti, Ni, Rb, Y, and Ba for the evolved stars. The chemical composition of the cluster is consistent with that of the Galactic thin disc. An overabundance of Ba is found, supporting the enhanced $s$-process. NGC 3105 has a low metallicity for its Galactocentric distance, comparable to typical LMC stars. It is a valuable spiral tracer in a very distant region of the Carina-Sagittarius spiral arm, a poorly known part of the Galaxy. As one of the few Galactic clusters containing blue, yellow and red supergiants, it is massive enough to serve as a testbed for theoretical evolutionary models close to the boundary between intermediate and high-mass stars.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in A&

Electronic properties of graphene multilayers

We study the effects of disorder in the electronic properties of graphene multilayers, with special focus on the bilayer and the infinite stack. At low energies and long wavelengths, the electronic self-energies and density of states exhibit behavior with divergences near half-filling. As a consequence, the spectral functions and conductivities do not follow Landau's Fermi liquid theory. In particular, we show that the quasiparticle decay rate has a minimum as a function of energy, there is a universal minimum value for the in-plane conductivity of order e^2/h per plane and, unexpectedly, the c-axis conductivity is enhanced by disorder at low doping, leading to an enormous conductivity anisotropy at low temperatures.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure. Reference to exciting new ARPES results on graphite added (we thank A. Lanzara for sharing the paper prior to its publication

Disorder Induced Localized States in Graphene

We consider the electronic structure near vacancies in the half-filled honeycomb lattice. It is shown that vacancies induce the formation of localized states. When particle-hole symmetry is broken, localized states become resonances close to the Fermi level. We also study the problem of a finite density of vacancies, obtaining the electronic density of states, and discussing the issue of electronic localization in these systems. Our results also have relevance for the problem of disorder in d-wave superconductors.Comment: Replaced with published version. 4 pages, 4 figures. Fig. 1 was revise

Dirac Fermion Confinement in Graphene

We study the problem of Dirac fermion confinement in graphene in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field B. We show, analytically and numerically, that confinement leads to anomalies in the electronic spectrum and to a magnetic field dependent crossover from \sqrt{B}, characteristic of Dirac-Landau level behavior, to linear in B behavior, characteristic of confinement. This crossover occurs when the radius of the Landau level becomes of the order of the width of the system. As a result, we show that the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations also change as a function of field, and lead to a singular Landau plot. We show that our theory is in excellent agreement with the experimental data.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure

Transmission through a biased graphene bilayer barrier

We study the electronic transmission through a graphene bilayer in the presence of an applied bias between layers. We consider different geometries involving interfaces between both a monolayer and a bilayer and between two bilayers. The applied bias opens a sizable gap in the spectrum inside the bilayer barrier region, thus leading to large changes in the transmission probability and electronic conductance that are controlled by the applied bias.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, extended versio