Coulomb blockade in graphene nanoribbons

We propose that recent transport experiments revealing the existence of an energy gap in graphene nanoribbons may be understood in terms of Coulomb blockade. Electron interactions play a decisive role at the quantum dots which form due to the presence of necks arising from the roughness of the graphene edge. With the average transmission as the only fitting parameter, our theory shows good agreement with the experimental data.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Zero-energy states and fragmentation of spin in the easy-plane antiferromagnet on a honeycomb lattice

The core of the vortex in the Neel order parameter for an easy-plane antiferromagnet on honeycomb lattice is demonstrated to bind two zero-energy states. Remarkably, a single electron occupying this mid-gap band has its spin fragmented between the two sublattices: Whereas it yields a vanishing total magnetization it shows a finite Neel order, orthogonal to the one of the assumed background. The requisite easy-plane anisotropy may be introduced by a magnetic field parallel to the graphene layer, for example. The results are relevant for spin-1/2 fermions on graphene's or optical honeycomb lattice, in the strongly interacting regime.Comment: 4 pages; cosmetic changes; published versio

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.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Final 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

Elliot-Yafet mechanism in graphene

The differences between spin relaxation in graphene and in other materials are discussed. For relaxation by scattering processes, the Elliot-Yafet mechanism, the relation between the spin and the momentum scattering times acquires a dependence on the carrier density, which is independent of the scattering mechanism and the relation between mobility and carrier concentration. This dependence puts severe restrictions on the origin of the spin relaxation in graphene. The density dependence of the spin relaxation allows us to distinguish between ordinary impurities and defects which modify locally the spin-orbit interaction.Comment: 4 pages + \epsilon + S

Fixed Points of the Dissipative Hofstadter Model

The phase diagram of a dissipative particle in a periodic potential and a magnetic field is studied in the weak barrier limit and in the tight-biding regime. For the case of half flux per plaquette, and for a wide range of values of the dissipation, the physics of the model is determined by a non trivial fixed point. A combination of exact and variational results is used to characterize this fixed point. Finally, it is also argued that there is an intermediate energy scale that separates the weak coupling physics from the tight-binding solution.Comment: 4 pages 3 figure

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