• 文献标题:   Propagating, evanescent, and localized states in carbon nanotube-graphene junctions
  • 文献类型:   Article
  • 作  者:   GONZALEZ J, GUINEA F, HERRERO J
  • 作者关键词:   band structure, bound state, carbon nanotube, crystal structure, crystal symmetry, electronic density of state, fermi level, graphene, localised state, tightbinding calculation
  • 出版物名称:   PHYSICAL REVIEW B
  • ISSN:   1098-0121
  • 通讯作者地址:   CSIC
  • 被引频次:   24
  • DOI:   10.1103/PhysRevB.79.165434
  • 出版年:   2009

▎ 摘  要

We study the electronic structure of the junctions between a single graphene layer and carbon nanotubes, using a tight-binding model and the continuum theory based on Dirac fermion fields. The latter provides a unified description of different lattice structures with curvature, which is always localized at six heptagonal carbon rings around each junction. When these are evenly spaced, we find that it is possible to curve the planar lattice into armchair (6n,6n) as well as zigzag (6n,0) nanotubes. We show that the junctions fall into two different classes, regarding the low-energy electronic behavior. One of them, constituted by the junctions made of the armchair nanotubes and the zigzag (6n,0) geometries when n is a multiple of 3, is characterized by the presence of two quasibound states at the Fermi level, which are absent for the rest of the zigzag nanotubes. These states, localized at the junction, are shown to arise from the effective gauge flux induced by the heptagonal carbon rings, which has a direct reflection in the local density of states around the junction. Furthermore, we also analyze the band structure of the arrays of junctions, finding out that they can also be classified into two different groups according to the low-energy behavior. In this regard, the arrays made of armchair and (6n,0) nanotubes with n equal to a multiple of 3 are characterized by the presence of a series of flat bands, whose number grows with the length of the nanotubes. We show that such flat bands have their origin in the formation of states confined to the nanotubes, with little overlap in the region between the junctions. This is explained in the continuum theory from the possibility of forming standing waves in the mentioned nanotube geometries, as a superposition of modes with opposite momenta and the same quantum numbers under the C-6v symmetry of the junction.