No Arabic abstract
The analysis of the electronic properties of strained or lattice deformed graphene combines ideas from classical condensed matter physics, soft matter, and geometrical aspects of quantum field theory (QFT) in curved spaces. Recent theoretical and experimental work shows the influence of strains in many properties of graphene not considered before, such as electronic transport, spin-orbit coupling, the formation of Moire patterns, optics, ... There is also significant evidence of anharmonic effects, which can modify the structural properties of graphene. These phenomena are not restricted to graphene, and they are being intensively studied in other two dimensional materials, such as the metallic dichalcogenides. We review here recent developments related to the role of strains in the structural and electronic properties of graphene and other two dimensional compounds.
After the first unequivocal demonstration of spin transport in graphene (Tombros et al., 2007), surprisingly at room temperature, it was quickly realized that this novel material was relevant for both fundamental spintronics and future applications. Over the decade since, exciting results have made the field of graphene spintronics blossom, and a second generation of studies has extended to new two-dimensional (2D) compounds. This Colloquium reviews recent theoretical and experimental advances on electronic spin transport in graphene and related 2D materials, focusing on emergent phenomena in van der Waals heterostructures and the new perspectives provided by them. These phenomena include proximity-enabled spin-orbit effects, the coupling of electronic spin to light, electrical tunability, and 2D magnetism.
Graphene and other two-dimensional materials display remarkable optical properties, including a simple light transparency of $T approx 1 - pi alpha$ for light in the visible region. Most theoretical rationalizations of this universal opacity employ a model coupling light to the electrons crystal momentum and put emphasis on the linear dispersion of the graphene bands. However, such a formulation of interband absorption is not allowable within band structure theory, because it conflates the crystal momentum label with the canonical momentum operator. We show that the physical origin of the optical behavior of graphene can be explained within a straightforward picture with the correct use of canonical momentum coupling. Its essence lies in the two-dimensional character of the density of states rather than in the precise dispersion relation, and therefore the discussion is applicable to other systems such as semiconductor membranes. At higher energies the calculation predicts a peak corresponding to a van Hove singularity as well as a specific asymmetry in the absorption spectrum of graphene, in agreement with previous results.
We systematically study the impact of various electron-acoustic-phonon coupling mechanisms on valley physics in two-dimensional materials. In the static strain limit, we find that Dirac cone tilt and deformation potential have analogous valley Hall response since they fall into the same universality class of pseudospin structure. However, such argument fails for the coupling mechanism with position-dependent Fermi velocity. For the isotropic case, a significant valley Hall effect occurs near charge neutrality similar to the bond-length change, whereas for the anisotropic case, the geometric valley transport is suppressed, akin to the deformation potential. Gap opening mechanism by nonuniform strain is found to totally inhibit the valley Hall transport, even if the dynamics of strains are introduced. By varying gate voltage, a tunable phonon-assisted valley Hall response can be realized, which paves a way toward rich phenomena and new functionalities of valley acoustoelectronics.
In this article we review the quantum Hall physics of graphene based two-dimensional electron systems, with a special focus on recent experimental and theoretical developments. We explain why graphene and bilayer graphene can be viewed respectively as J=1 and J=2 chiral two-dimensional electron gases (C2DEGs), and why this property frames their quantum Hall physics. The current status of experimental and theoretical work on the role of electron-electron interactions is reviewed at length with an emphasis on unresolved issues in the field, including assessing the role of disorder in current experimental results. Special attention is given to the interesting low magnetic field limit and to the relationship between quantum Hall effects and the spontaneous anomalous Hall effects that might occur in bilayer graphene systems in the absence of a magnetic field.
We study direct and indirect magnetoexcitons in Rydberg states in monolayers and double-layer heterostructures of Xenes (silicene, germanene, and stanene) in external parallel electric and magnetic fields, applied perpendicular to the monolayer and heterostructure. We calculate binding energies of magnetoexcitons for the Rydberg states 1$s$, 2$s$, 3$s$, and 4$s$, by numerical integration of the Schr{o}dinger equation using the Rytova-Keldysh potential for direct magnetoexciton and both the Rytova-Keldysh and Coulomb potentials for indirect excitons. Latter allows understanding a role of screening in Xenes. In the external perpendicular electric field, the buckled structure of the Xene monolayers leads to appearance of potential difference between sublattices allowing to tune electron and hole masses and, therefore, the binding energies and diamagnetic coefficients (DMCs) of magnetoexcitons. We report the energy contribution from electric and magnetic fields to the binding energies and DMCs. The tunability of the energy contribution of direct and indirect magnetoexcitons by electric and magnetic fields is demonstrated. It is also shown that DMCs of direct excitons can be tuned by the electric field, and the DMCs of indirect magnetoexcitons can be tuned by the electric field and manipulated by the number of h-BN layers. Therefore, these allowing the possibility of electronic devices design that can be controlled by external electric and magnetic fields and the number of h-BN layers. The calculations of the binding energies and DMCs of magnetoexcitons in Xenes monolayers and heterostructures are novel and can be compared with the experimental results when they will be available.