• 文献标题:   Valley-driven Zitterbewegung in Kekule-distorted graphene
  • 文献类型:   Article
  • 作  者:   SANTACRUZ A, IGLESIAS PE, CARRILLOBASTOS R, MIRELES F
  • 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:  
  • 被引频次:   1
  • DOI:   10.1103/PhysRevB.105.205405
  • 出版年:   2022

▎ 摘  要

Graphene deposited on top of a copper(111) substrate may develop a Y-shaped Kekule bond texture (Kekule-Y), locking the momentum with the valley degree of freedom of its Dirac fermions. Consequently, the valley degeneracy of its band structure is broken, generating an energy dispersion with two nested Dirac cones with different Fermi velocities. This work investigates the dynamics of electronic wave packets in the Kekule-Y superlattice with strength Delta(0). We show that, as a result of the valley-momentum coupling, a valley-driven oscillatory motion of the wave packets (Zitterbewegung) could appear, but with a drastically reduced attenuation rate and lower frequency (proportional to Delta(0)) when compared to the Zitterbewegung effect associated with pristine graphene. Furthermore, we justify the presence of these Zitterbewegung frequencies in terms of the Berry connection matrix and a discrete symmetry present in the system. These results make Kekule-Y graphene a compelling candidate for experimental observation of the Zitterbewegung phenomenon in a two-dimensional system.