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Register a new userCharged Topological Solitons in Zigzag Graphene Nanoribbons
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Graphene nanoribbons with zigzag terminated edges have a magnetic ground state characterized by edge ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetic inter edge coupling. This broken symmetry state is degenerate in the spin orientation and we show that, associated with this degeneracy, the system has topological solitons. The solitons appear at the interface between degenerate ground states. These solitons are the relevant charge excitations in the system. When charge is added to the nanoribbon, the system energetically prefers to create magnetic domains and accommodate the extra electrons in the interface solitons rather than setting them in the conduction band.
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We present an analytical tight-binding theory of the optical properties of graphene nanoribbons with zigzag edges. Applying the transfer matrix technique to the nearest-neighbor tight-binding Hamiltonian, we derive analytical expressions for electron wave functions and optical transition matrix elements for incident light polarized along the structure axis. It follows from the obtained results that optical selection rules result from the wave function parity factor $(-1)^J$, where $J$ is the band number. These selection rules are that $Delta J$ is odd for transitions between valence and conduction subbands and that $Delta J$ is even for transitions between only valence (conduction) subbands. Although these selection rules are different from those in armchair carbon nanotubes, there is a hidden correlation between absorption spectra of the two structures that should allow one to use them interchangeably in some applications. The correlation originates from the fact that van Hove singularities in the tubes are centered between those in the ribbons if the ribbon width is about a half of the tube circumference. The analysis of the matrix elements dependence on the electron wave vector for narrow ribbons shows a smooth non-singular behavior at the Dirac points and the points where the bulk states meet the edge states.
We propose, for the first time, a valley Seebeck effect in gate tunable zigzag graphene nanoribbons as a result of the interplay between thermal gradient and valleytronics. A pure valley current is further generated by the thermal gradient as well as the external bias. In a broad temperature range, the pure valley current is found to be linearly dependent on the temperature gradient while it increases with the increasing temperature of one lead for a fixed thermal gradient. A valley field effect transistor (FET) driven by the temperature gradient is proposed that can turn on and off the pure valley current by gate voltage. The threshold gate voltage and on valley current are proportional to the temperature gradient. When the system switches on at positive gate voltage, the pure valley current is nearly independent of gate voltage. The valley transconductance is up to 30 {mu}S if we take Ampere as the unit of the valley current. This valley FET may find potential application in future valleytronics and valley caloritronics.
We investigate electron and phonon transport through edge disordered zigzag graphene nanoribbons based on the same methodological tool of nonequilibrium Green functions. We show that edge disorder dramatically reduces phonon thermal transport while being only weakly detrimental to electronic conduction. The behavior of the electronic and phononic elastic mean free paths points to the possibility of realizing an electron-crystal coexisting with a phonon-glass. The calculated thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) values qualify zigzag graphene nanoribbons as a very promising material for thermoelectric applications.
It is shown that apart from well-known factors, like temperature, substrate, and edge reconstruction effects, also the presence of external contacts is destructive for the formation of magnetic moments at the edges of graphene nanoribbons. The edge magnetism gradually decreases when graphene/electrode interfaces become more and more transparent for electrons. In addition to the graphene/electrode coupling strength, also the aspect ratio parameter, i.e. a width/length ratio of the graphene nanoribbon, is crucial for the suppression of edge magnetism. The present theory uses a tight-binding method, based on the mean-field Hubbard Hamiltonian for $pi$ electrons, and the Greens function technique within the Landauer-Buttiker approach.
We theoretically investigate the one-color injection currents and shift currents in zigzag graphene nanoribbons with applying a static electric field across the ribbon, which breaks the inversion symmetry to generate nonzero second order optical responses by dipole interaction. These two types of currents can be separately excited by specific light polarization, circularly polarized lights for injection currents and linearly polarized lights for shift currents. Based on a tight binding model formed by carbon 2p$_z$ orbitals, we numerically calculate the spectra of injection coefficients and shift conductivities, as well as their dependence on the static field strength and ribbon width. The spectra show many peaks associated with the optical transition between different subbands, and the positions and amplitudes of these peaks can be effectively controlled by the static electric field. By constructing a simple two band model, the static electric fields are found to modify the edge states in a nonperturbative way, and their associated optical transitions dominate the current generation at low photon energies. For typical parameters, such as a static field 10$^6$ V/m and light intensity 0.1 GW/cm$^2$, the magnitude of the injection and shift currents for a ribbon with width 5 nm can be as large as the order of 1 $mu$A. Our results provide a physical basis for realizing passive optoelectronic devices based on graphene nanoribbons.
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