Strain-induced deformations in graphene are predicted to give rise to large pseudomagnetic fields. We examine theoretically the case of gas-inflated bubbles to determine whether signatures of such fields are present in the local density of states. Sharp-edged bubbles are found to induce Friedel-type oscillations which can envelope pseudo-Landau level features in certain regions of the bubble. However, bubbles which minimise interference effects are also unsuitable for pseudo-Landau level formation due to more spatially varying field profiles.
Raised above the substrate and elastically deformed areas of graphene in the form of bubbles are found on different substrates. They come in a variety of shapes, including those which allow strong modification of the electronic properties of graphene. We show that the shape of the bubble can be controlled by an external electric field. This effect can be used to make graphene-based adaptive focus lenses.
We investigate the process of cloud cavitation collapse through large-scale simulation of a cloud composed of 12500 gas bubbles. A finite volume scheme is used on a structured Cartesian grid to solve the Euler equations, and the bubbles are discretized by a diffuse interface method. We investigate the propagation of the collapse wave front through the cloud and provide comparisons to simplified models. We analyze the flow field to identify each bubble of the cloud and its associated microjet. We find that the oscillation frequency of the bubbles and the velocity magnitude of the microjets depend on the local strength of the collapse wave and hence on the radial position of the bubbles in the cloud. At the same time, the direction of the microjets is influenced by the distribution of the bubbles in its vicinity. Finally, an analysis of the pressure pulse spectrum shows that the pressure pulse rate is well captured by an exponential law.
Periodic driving fields can induce topological phase transitions, resulting in Floquet topological phases with intriguing properties such as very large Chern numbers and unusual edge states. Whether such Floquet topological phases could generate robust edge state conductance much larger than their static counterparts is an interesting question. In this paper, working under the Keldysh formalism, we study two-lead transport via the edge states of irradiated quantum Hall insulators using the method of recursive Floquet-Greens functions. Focusing on a harmonically-driven Hofstadter model, we show that quantized Hall conductance as large as $8e^2/h$ can be realized, but only after applying the so-called Floquet sum rule. To assess the robustness of edge state transport, we analyze the DC conductance, time-averaged current profile and local density of states. It is found that co-propagating chiral edge modes are more robust against disorder and defects as compared with the remarkable counter-propagating edge modes, as well as certain symmetry-restricted Floquet edge modes. Furthermore, we go beyond the wide-band limit, which is often assumed for the leads, to study how the conductance quantization (after applying the Floquet sum rule) of Floquet edge states can be affected if the leads have finite bandwidths. These results may be useful for the design of transport devices based on Floquet topological matter.
The results of micro-Raman scattering measurements performed on three different ``graphitic materials: micro-structured disks of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite, graphene multi-layers thermally decomposed from carbon terminated surface of 4H-SiC and an exfoliated graphene monolayer are presented. Despite its multi-layer character, most parts of the surface of the graphitized SiC substrates shows a single-component, Lorentzian shape, double resonance Raman feature in striking similarity to the case of a single graphene monolayer. Our observation suggests a very weak electronic coupling between graphitic layers on the SiC surface, which therefore can be considered to be graphene multi-layers with a simple (Dirac-like) band structure.
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.