Transverse field effect in graphene ribbons

It is shown that a graphene ribbon, a ballistic strip of carbon monolayer, may serve as a quantum wire whose electronic properties can be continuously and reversibly controlled by an externally applied transverse voltage. The electron bands of armchair-edge ribbons undergo dramatic transformations: The Fermi surface fractures, Fermi velocity and effective mass change sign, and excitation gaps are reduced by the transverse field. These effects are manifest in the conductance plateaus, van Hove singularities, thermopower, and activated transport. The control over one-dimensional bands may help enhance effects of electron correlations, and be utilized in device applications.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Comparison of Power Dependence of Microwave Surface Resistance of Unpatterned and Patterned YBCO Thin Film

The effect of the patterning process on the nonlinearity of the microwave surface resistance $R_S$ of YBCO thin films is investigated. With the use of a sapphire dielectric resonator and a stripline resonator, the microwave $R_S$ of YBCO thin films was measured before and after the patterning process, as a function of temperature and the rf peak magnetic field in the film. The microwave loss was also modeled, assuming a $J_{rf}^2$ dependence of $Z_S(J_{rf})$ on current density $J_{rf}$. Experimental and modeled results show that the patterning has no observable effect on the microwave residual $R_S$ or on the power dependence of $R_S$.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Trans. MT

Geometrical and electronic structures of the (5, 3) single-walled gold nanotube from first-principles calculations

The geometrical and electronic structures of the 4 {\AA} diameter perfect and deformed (5, 3) single-walled gold nanotube (SWGT) have been studied based upon the density-functional theory in the local-density approximation (LDA). The calculated relaxed geometries show clearly significant deviations from those of the ideally rolled triangular gold sheet. It is found that the different strains have different effects on the electronic structures and density of states of the SWGTs. And the small shear strain can reduce the binding energy per gold atom of the deformed SWGT, which is consistent with the experimentally observed result. Finally, we found the finite SWGT can show the metal-semiconductor transition.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Disorder-Induced Broadening of the Density of States for 2D Electrons with Strong Spin-Orbit Coupling

We study theoretically the disorder-induced smearing of the density of states in a two-dimensional electron system taking into account a spin-orbit term in the Hamiltonian of a free electron. We show that the characteristic energy scale for the smearing increases with increasing the spin-orbit coupling. We also demonstrate that in the limit of a strong spin-orbit coupling the diagrams with self-intersections give a parametrically small contribution to the self-energy. As a result, the coherent potential approximation becomes asymptotically exact in this limit. The tail of the density of states has the energy scale which is much smaller than the magnitude of the smearing. We find the shape of the tail using the instanton approach.Comment: 12 pages, REVTeX, 4 figure

Phonon self-energy corrections to non-zero wavevector phonon modes in single-layer graphene

Phonon self-energy corrections have mostly been studied theoretically and experimentally for phonon modes with zone-center (q = 0) wave-vectors. Here, gate-modulated Raman scattering is used to study phonons of a single layer of graphene (1LG) in the frequency range from 2350 to 2750 cm-1, which shows the G* and the G'-band features originating from a double-resonant Raman process with q \not= 0. The observed phonon renormalization effects are different from what is observed for the zone-center q = 0 case. To explain our experimental findings, we explored the phonon self-energy for the phonons with non-zero wave-vectors (q \not= 0) in 1LG in which the frequencies and decay widths are expected to behave oppositely to the behavior observed in the corresponding zone-center q = 0 processes. Within this framework, we resolve the identification of the phonon modes contributing to the G* Raman feature at 2450 cm-1 to include the iTO+LA combination modes with q \not= 0 and the 2iTO overtone modes with q = 0, showing both to be associated with wave-vectors near the high symmetry point K in the Brillouin zone

Group theory analysis of electrons and phonons in N-layer graphene systems

In this work we study the symmetry properties of electrons and phonons in graphene systems as function of the number of layers. We derive the selection rules for the electron-radiation and for the electron-phonon interactions at all points in the Brillouin zone. By considering these selection rules, we address the double resonance Raman scattering process. The monolayer and bilayer graphene in the presence of an applied electric field are also discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

Interfaces Within Graphene Nanoribbons

We study the conductance through two types of graphene nanostructures: nanoribbon junctions in which the width changes from wide to narrow, and curved nanoribbons. In the wide-narrow structures, substantial reflection occurs from the wide-narrow interface, in contrast to the behavior of the much studied electron gas waveguides. In the curved nanoribbons, the conductance is very sensitive to details such as whether regions of a semiconducting armchair nanoribbon are included in the curved structure -- such regions strongly suppress the conductance. Surprisingly, this suppression is not due to the band gap of the semiconducting nanoribbon, but is linked to the valley degree of freedom. Though we study these effects in the simplest contexts, they can be expected to occur for more complicated structures, and we show results for rings as well. We conclude that experience from electron gas waveguides does not carry over to graphene nanostructures. The interior interfaces causing extra scattering result from the extra effective degrees of freedom of the graphene structure, namely the valley and sublattice pseudospins.Comment: 19 pages, published version, several references added, small changes to conclusion

Thermoelectricity in Nanowires: A Generic Model

By employing a Boltzmann transport equation and using an energy and size dependent relaxation time ($\tau$) approximation (RTA), we evaluate self-consistently the thermoelectric figure-of-merit $ZT$ of a quantum wire with rectangular cross-section. The inferred $ZT$ shows abrupt enhancement in comparison to its counterparts in bulk systems. Still, the estimated $ZT$ for the representative Bi$_2$Te$_3$ nanowires and its dependence on wire parameters deviate considerably from those predicted by the existing RTA models with a constant $\tau$. In addition, we address contribution of the higher energy subbands to the transport phenomena, the effect of chemical potential tuning on $ZT$, and correlation of $ZT$ with quantum size effects (QSEs). The obtained results are of general validity for a wide class of systems and may prove useful in the ongoing development of the modern thermoelectric applications.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures; Dedicated to the memory of Amirkhan Qezell

Molecular transistor coupled to phonons and Luttinger-liquid leads

We study the effects of electron-phonon interactions on the transport properties of a molecular quantum dot coupled to two Luttinger-liquid leads. In particular, we investigate the effects on the steady state current and DC noise characteristics. We consider both equilibrated and unequilibrated on-dot phonons. The density matrix formalism is applied in the high temperature approximation and the resulting semi-classical rate equation is numerically solved for various strengths of electron-electron interactions in the leads and electron-phonon coupling. The current and the noise are in general smeared out and suppressed due to intralead electron interaction. On the other hand, the Fano factor, which measures the noise normalized by the current, is more enhanced as the intralead interaction becomes stronger. As the electron-phonon coupling becomes greater than order one, the Fano factor exhibits super-Poissonian behaviour.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figure

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.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure