No Arabic abstract
The motion of a C60 molecule over a graphene sheet at finite temperature is investigated both theoretically and computationally. We show that a graphene sheet generates a van der Waals laterally periodic potential, which directly influences the motion of external objects in its proximity. The translational motion of a C60 molecule near a graphene sheet is found to be diffusive in the lateral directions. While, in the perpendicular direction, the motion may be described as diffusion in an effective harmonic potential which is determined from the distribution function of the position of the C60 molecule. We also examine the rotational diffusion of C60 and show that its motion over the graphene sheet is not a rolling motion.
Two experimental studies reported the spontaneous formation of amorphous and crystalline structures of C60 intercalated between graphene and a substrate. They observed interesting phenomena ranging from reaction between C60 molecules under graphene to graphene sagging between the molecules and control of strain in graphene. Motivated by these works, we performed fully atomistic reactive molecular dynamics simulations to study the formation and thermal stability of graphene wrinkles as well as graphene attachment to and detachment from the substrate when graphene is laid over a previously distributed array of C60 molecules on a copper substrate at different values of temperature. As graphene compresses the C60 molecules against the substrate, and graphene attachment to the substrate between C60s (C60s stands for plural of C60) depends on the height of graphene wrinkles, configurations with both frozen and non-frozen C60s structures were investigated in order to verify the experimental result of stable sagged graphene when the distance between C60s is about 4 nm and height of graphene wrinkles is about 0.8 nm. Below the distance of 4 nm between C60s, graphene becomes locally suspended and less strained. We show that this happens when C60s are allowed to deform under the compressive action of graphene. If we keep the C60s frozen, spontaneous blanketing of graphene happens only when the distance between them are equal or above 7 nm. Both above results for the existence of stable sagged graphene for C60 distances of 4 or 7 nm are shown to agree with a mechanical model relating the rigidity of graphene to the energy of graphene-substrate adhesion. In particular, this study might help the development of 2D confined nanoreactors that are considered in literature to be the next advanced step on chemical reactions.
We report the preparation of novel one-dimensional (1D) C60 nanostructures on rippled graphene. Through careful control of the subtle balance between the linear periodic potential of rippled graphene and the C60 surface mobility, we demonstrate that C60 molecules can be arranged into a 1D C60 chain structure with widths of two to three molecules. At a higher annealing temperature, the 1D chain structure transitions to a more compact hexagonal close packed quasi-1D stripe structure. This first experimental realization of 1D C60 structures on graphene may pave a way for fabricating new C60/graphene hybrid structures for future applications in electronics, spintronics and quantum information.
We study the domain wall motion in a disordered weak ferromagnet, induced by injecting a spin current from a strong ferromagnet. Starting from the spin diffusion equation describing the spin accumulation in the weak ferromagnet, we calculate the force and torque acting on the domain wall. We also study the ensuing domain wall dynamics, and suggest a possible measurement method for detecting the domain wall motion via measuring the additional resistance.
The extraordinary properties of graphene make it a very promising material for use in optoelectronics. However, this is still a nascent field, where some basic properties of the electromagnetic field in graphene must be explored. Here we report on the fields radiated by a nanoemitter lying on a graphene sheet. Our results show that this field presents a rich dependence on both frequency, distance to the source and dipole orientation. This behavior is attributed to distinct peculiarities on the density of electromagnetic states in the graphene sheet and the interaction between them. The field is mainly composed of an core region of high-intensity electromagnetic field, dominated by surface plasmons, and an outer region where the field is practically the same it would be for an emitter in vacuum. Within the core region, the intensity of the electric field is several orders of magnitude larger than what it would be in vacuum. Importantly, the size of this core region can be controlled thorough external gates, which opens up many interesting applications in, for instance, surface optics and spectroscopy. Additionally, the large coupling between nanoemitters and surface plasmons makes graphene sheets a propitious stage for quantum-optics, in which the interaction between quantum objects could be externally tailored at will.
Assuming diffusive carrier transport and employing an effective medium theory, we calculate the temperature dependence of bilayer graphene conductivity due to Fermi-surface broadening as a function of carrier density. We find that the temperature dependence of the conductivity depends strongly on the amount of disorder. In the regime relevant to most experiments, the conductivity is a function of T/T*, where T* is the characteristic temperature set by disorder. We demonstrate that experimental data taken from various groups collapse onto a theoretically predicted scaling function.