Peierls-Type Instability and Tunable Band Gap in Functionalized Graphene

Functionalizing graphene was recently shown to have a dramatic effect on the electronic properties of this material. Here we investigate spatial ordering of adatoms driven by the RKKY-type interactions. In the ordered state, which arises via a Peierls-instability-type mechanism, the adatoms reside m...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Abanin, Dmitry A., Shytov, A. V., Levitov, Leonid
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: American Physical Society 2014
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88510
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4268-731X
_version_ 1811078688474660864
author Abanin, Dmitry A.
Shytov, A. V.
Levitov, Leonid
author2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
author_facet Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Abanin, Dmitry A.
Shytov, A. V.
Levitov, Leonid
author_sort Abanin, Dmitry A.
collection MIT
description Functionalizing graphene was recently shown to have a dramatic effect on the electronic properties of this material. Here we investigate spatial ordering of adatoms driven by the RKKY-type interactions. In the ordered state, which arises via a Peierls-instability-type mechanism, the adatoms reside mainly on one of the two graphene sublattices. Bragg scattering of electron waves induced by sublattice symmetry breaking results in a band gap opening, whereby Dirac fermions acquire a finite mass. The band gap is found to be immune to the adatoms’ positional disorder, with only an exponentially small number of localized states residing in the gap. The gapped state is stabilized in a wide range of electron doping. Our findings show that controlled adsorption of adatoms or molecules provides a route to engineering a tunable band gap in graphene.
first_indexed 2024-09-23T11:03:54Z
format Article
id mit-1721.1/88510
institution Massachusetts Institute of Technology
language en_US
last_indexed 2024-09-23T11:03:54Z
publishDate 2014
publisher American Physical Society
record_format dspace
spelling mit-1721.1/885102022-09-27T16:51:52Z Peierls-Type Instability and Tunable Band Gap in Functionalized Graphene Abanin, Dmitry A. Shytov, A. V. Levitov, Leonid Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Levitov, Leonid Functionalizing graphene was recently shown to have a dramatic effect on the electronic properties of this material. Here we investigate spatial ordering of adatoms driven by the RKKY-type interactions. In the ordered state, which arises via a Peierls-instability-type mechanism, the adatoms reside mainly on one of the two graphene sublattices. Bragg scattering of electron waves induced by sublattice symmetry breaking results in a band gap opening, whereby Dirac fermions acquire a finite mass. The band gap is found to be immune to the adatoms’ positional disorder, with only an exponentially small number of localized states residing in the gap. The gapped state is stabilized in a wide range of electron doping. Our findings show that controlled adsorption of adatoms or molecules provides a route to engineering a tunable band gap in graphene. United States. Office of Naval Research (Grant N00014-09-1-0724) 2014-07-28T20:08:36Z 2014-07-28T20:08:36Z 2010-08 2010-04 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0031-9007 1079-7114 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88510 Abanin, D. A., A. V. Shytov, and L. S. Levitov. “Peierls-Type Instability and Tunable Band Gap in Functionalized Graphene.” Physical Review Letters 105, no. 8 (August 2010). © 2010 The American Physical Society https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4268-731X en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.086802 Physical Review Letters Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Physical Society APS
spellingShingle Abanin, Dmitry A.
Shytov, A. V.
Levitov, Leonid
Peierls-Type Instability and Tunable Band Gap in Functionalized Graphene
title Peierls-Type Instability and Tunable Band Gap in Functionalized Graphene
title_full Peierls-Type Instability and Tunable Band Gap in Functionalized Graphene
title_fullStr Peierls-Type Instability and Tunable Band Gap in Functionalized Graphene
title_full_unstemmed Peierls-Type Instability and Tunable Band Gap in Functionalized Graphene
title_short Peierls-Type Instability and Tunable Band Gap in Functionalized Graphene
title_sort peierls type instability and tunable band gap in functionalized graphene
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88510
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4268-731X
work_keys_str_mv AT abanindmitrya peierlstypeinstabilityandtunablebandgapinfunctionalizedgraphene
AT shytovav peierlstypeinstabilityandtunablebandgapinfunctionalizedgraphene
AT levitovleonid peierlstypeinstabilityandtunablebandgapinfunctionalizedgraphene