Tailoring the thermal Casimir force with graphene

The Casimir interaction is omnipresent source of forces at small separations between bodies, which is difficult to change by varying external conditions. Here we show that graphene interacting with a metal can have the best known force contrast to the temperature and the Fermi level variations. In the distance range 50–300 nm the force is measurable and can vary a few times for graphene with a bandgap much larger than the temperature. In this distance range the main part of the force is due to the thermal fluctuations. We discuss also graphene on a dielectric membrane as a technologically robust configuration

Competition between excitonic gap generation and disorder scattering in graphene

We study the disorder effect on the excitonic gap generation caused by strong Coulomb interaction in graphene. By solving the self-consistently coupled equations of dynamical fermion gap $m$ and disorder scattering rate $\Gamma$, we found a critical line on the plane of interaction strength $\lambda$ and disorder strength $g$. The phase diagram is divided into two regions: in the region with large $\lambda$ and small $g$, $m \neq 0$ and $\Gamma = 0$; in the other region, $m = 0$ and $\Gamma \neq 0$ for nonzero $g$. In particular, there is no coexistence of finite fermion gap and finite scattering rate. These results imply a strong competition between excitonic gap generation and disorder scattering. This conclusion does not change when an additional contact four-fermion interaction is included. For sufficiently large $\lambda$, the growing disorder may drive a quantum phase transition from an excitonic insulator to a metal.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur

Electron-Phonon Coupling in Highly-Screened Graphene

Photoemission studies of graphene have resulted in a long-standing controversy concerning the strength of the experimental electron-phonon interaction in comparison with theoretical calculations. Using high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy we study graphene grown on a copper substrate, where the metallic screening of the substrate substantially reduces the electron-electron interaction, simplifying the comparison of the electron-phonon interaction between theory and experiment. By taking the nonlinear bare bandstructure into account, we are able to show that the strength of the electron-phonon interaction does indeed agree with theoretical calculations. In addition, we observe a significant bandgap at the Dirac point of graphene.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. on July 20, 201

Effect of Coulomb interactions on the physical observables of graphene

We give an update of the situation concerning the effect of electron-electron interactions on the physics of a neutral graphene system at low energies. We revise old renormalization group results and the use of 1/N expansion to address questions of the possible opening of a low-energy gap, and the magnitude of the graphene fine structure constant. We emphasize the role of Fermi velocity as the only free parameter determining the transport and electronic properties of the graphene system and revise its renormalization by Coulomb interactions in the light of recent experimental evidence.Comment: Proceedings of the Nobel Symposium on graphene 2010, to appear as a special issue in Physica Script

Electron-Electron Interactions in Graphene: Current Status and Perspectives

We review the problem of electron-electron interactions in graphene. Starting from the screening of long range interactions in these systems, we discuss the existence of an emerging Dirac liquid of Lorentz invariant quasi-particles in the weak coupling regime, and strongly correlated electronic states in the strong coupling regime. We also analyze the analogy and connections between the many-body problem and the Coulomb impurity problem. The problem of the magnetic instability and Kondo effect of impurities and/or adatoms in graphene is also discussed in analogy with classical models of many-body effects in ordinary metals. We show that Lorentz invariance plays a fundamental role and leads to effects that span the whole spectrum, from the ultraviolet to the infrared. The effect of an emerging Lorentz invariance is also discussed in the context of finite size and edge effects as well as mesoscopic physics. We also briefly discuss the effects of strong magnetic fields in single layers and review some of the main aspects of the many-body problem in graphene bilayers. In addition to reviewing the fully understood aspects of the many-body problem in graphene, we show that a plethora of interesting issues remain open, both theoretically and experimentally, and that the field of graphene research is still exciting and vibrant.Comment: Review Article to appear in Reviews of Modern Physics. 62 pages, 44 figure

Emergent spin liquids in the hubbard model on the anisotropic honeycomb lattice

10.1209/0295-5075/95/47013EPL954