Non-covalent functionalization via physisorption of organic molecules
provides a scalable approach for modifying the electronic structure of graphene
while preserving its excellent carrier mobilities. Here we investigated the
physisorption of long-chain acenes, namely, hexacene and its fluorinated
derivative perfluorohexacene, on bilayer graphene for tunable graphene devices
using first principles methods. We find that the adsorption of these molecules
leads to the formation of localized states in the electronic structure of
graphene close to its Fermi level, which could be readily tuned by an external
electric field. The electric field not only creates a variable band gap as
large as 250 meV in bilayer graphene, but also strongly influences the charge
redistribution within the molecule-graphene system. This charge redistribution
is found to be weak enough not to induce strong surface doping, but strong
enough to help preserve the electronic states near the Dirac point of graphene.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, supporting informatio
