• 文献标题:   Diffusion on edges of insulating graphene with intravalley and intervalley scattering
  • 文献类型:   Article
  • 作  者:   TKACHOV G, HENTSCHEL M
  • 作者关键词:  
  • 出版物名称:   PHYSICAL REVIEW B
  • ISSN:   2469-9950 EI 2469-9969
  • 通讯作者地址:   Univ Wurzburg
  • 被引频次:   4
  • DOI:   10.1103/PhysRevB.86.205414
  • 出版年:   2012

▎ 摘  要

Band-gap engineering in graphene may open the routes towards transistor devices in which electric current can be switched off and on at will. One may, however, ask if a semiconducting band gap alone is sufficient to quench the current in graphene. In this paper we demonstrate that despite a bulk band gap graphene can still have metallic conductance along the sample edges (provided that they are shorter than the localization length). We find this for single-layer graphene with a zigzag-type boundary which hosts gapless propagating edge states even in the presence of a bulk band gap. By generating intervalley scattering, sample disorder reduces the edge conductance. However, for weak scattering a metallic regime emerges with the diffusive conductance G = (e(2)/h)(l (KK')/L) per spin, where l(KK') is the transport mean-free path due to the intervalley scattering and L >> l(KK') is the edge length. We also take intravalley scattering by smooth disorder (e. g., by remote ionized impurities in the substrate) into account. Albeit contributing to the elastic quasiparticle lifetime, the intravalley scattering has no effect on G.