Conductivity of disordered graphene at half filling

We study electron transport properties of a monoatomic graphite layer (graphene) with different types of disorder at half filling. We show that the transport properties of the system depend strongly on the symmetry of disorder. We find that the localization is ineffective if the randomness preserves one of the chiral symmetries of the clean Hamiltonian or does not mix valleys. We obtain the exact value of minimal conductivity $4e^2/\pi h$ in the case of chiral disorder. For long-range disorder (decoupled valleys), we derive the effective field theory. In the case of smooth random potential, it is a symplectic-class sigma model including a topological term with $\theta = \pi$. As a consequence, the system is at a quantum critical point with a universal value of the conductivity of the order of $e^2/h$. When the effective time reversal symmetry is broken, the symmetry class becomes unitary, and the conductivity acquires the value characteristic for the quantum Hall transition.Comment: 11 pages, 2 EPS figures; Proceedings of Graphene Conference, MPIPKS Dresden 200

Symmetries and weak (anti)localization of Dirac fermions in HgTe quantum wells

We perform a symmetry analysis of a 2D electron system in HgTe/HgCdTe quantum wells in the situation when the chemical potential is outside of the gap, so that the bulk of the quantum well is conducting. In order to investigate quantum transport properties of the system, we explore symmetries of the low-energy Hamiltonian which is expressed in terms of two flavors of Dirac fermions, and physically important symmetry-breaking mechanisms. This allows us to predict emerging patterns of symmetry breaking that control the weak localization and antilocalization showing up in transverse-field magnetoresistance.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure

Interaction-induced criticality in Z_2 topological insulators

Critical phenomena and quantum phase transitions are paradigmatic concepts in modern condensed matter physics. A central example in the field of mesoscopic physics is the localization-delocalization (metal-insulator) quantum phase transition driven by disorder -- the Anderson transition. Although the notion of localization has appeared half a century ago, this field is still full of surprising new developments. The most recent arenas where novel peculiar localization phenomena have been studied are graphene and topological insulators, i.e., bulk insulators with delocalized (topologically protected) states on their surface. Besides exciting physical properties, the topological protection renders such systems promising candidates for a variety of prospective electronic and spintronic devices. It is thus of crucial importance to understand properties of boundary metallic modes in the realistic systems when both disorder and interaction are present. Here we find a novel critical state which emerges in the bulk of two-dimensional quantum spin Hall (QSH) systems and on the surface of three-dimensional topological insulators with strong spin-orbit interaction due to the interplay of nontrivial Z_2 topology and the Coulomb repulsion. At low temperatures, this state possesses a universal value of electrical conductivity. In particular, we predict that the direct QSH phase transition occurs via this novel state. Remarkably, the interaction-induced critical state emerges on the surface of a three-dimensional topological insulator without any adjustable parameters. This ``self-organized quantum criticality'' is a novel concept in the field of interacting disordered systems.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Metallic proximity effect in ballistic graphene with resonant scatterers

We study the effect of resonant scatterers on the local density of states in a rectangular graphene setup with metallic leads. We find that the density of states in a vicinity of the Dirac point acquires a strong position dependence due to both metallic proximity effect and impurity scattering. This effect may prevent uniform gating of weakly-doped samples. We also demonstrate that even a single-atom impurity may essentially alter electronic states at low-doping on distances of the order of the sample size from the impurity.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure

Instanton-induced Azimuthal Spin Asymmetry in Deep Inelastic Scattering

It is by now well understood that spin asymmetry in deep inelastic scattering (DIS) can appear if two things are both present: (i) a chirality flip of the struck quark; (ii) a nonzero T-odd phase due to its final state interaction. So far (i) was attributed to a new structure/wave function of the nucleon and (ii) to some gluon exchanges. We propose a new mechanism utilizing strong vacuum fluctuations of the gluon field described semiclasically by instantons, and show that both (i) and (ii) are present. The magnitude of the effect is estimated using known parameters of the instanton ensemble in the QCD vacuum and known structure and fragmentation functions, without any new free parameters. The result agrees in sign and (roughly) in magnitude with the available data on single particle inclusive DIS. Furthermore, our predictions uniquely relate effects for longitudinally and transversely polarized targets.Comment: version 2 includes few refs and new fig.5 which contains comparison to recent dat

Full counting statistics in disordered graphene at Dirac point: From ballistics to diffusion

The full counting statistics of the charge transport through an undoped graphene sheet in the presence of smooth disorder is studied. At the Dirac point both in clean and diffusive limits, transport properties of a graphene sample are described by the universal Dorokhov distribution of transmission probabilities. In the crossover regime, deviations from universality occur which can be studied analytically both on ballistic and diffusive sides. In the ballistic regime, we use a diagrammatic technique with matrix Green functions. For a diffusive system, the sigma model is applied. Our results are in good agreement with recent numerical simulations of electron transport in disordered graphene.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure

Diffusion and criticality in undoped graphene with resonant scatterers

A general theory is developed to describe graphene with arbitrary number of isolated impurities. The theory provides a basis for an efficient numerical analysis of the charge transport and is applied to calculate the minimal conductivity of graphene with resonant scatterers. In the case of smooth resonant impurities conductivity grows logarithmically with increasing impurity concentration, in agreement with renormalization group analysis for the symmetry class DIII. For vacancies (or strong on-site potential impurities) the conductivity saturates at a constant value that depends on the vacancy distribution among two sublattices as expected for the symmetry class BDI.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure