• 文献标题:   Competing Gap Opening Mechanisms of Monolayer Graphene and Graphene Nanoribbons on Strong Topological Insulators
  • 文献类型:   Article
  • 作  者:   LIN ZN, QIN W, ZENG J, CHEN W, CUI P, CHO JH, QIAO ZH, ZHANG ZY
  • 作者关键词:   firstprinciples calculation, graphene, graphene nanoribbon, kekule distortion, gap opening
  • 出版物名称:   NANO LETTERS
  • ISSN:   1530-6984 EI 1530-6992
  • 通讯作者地址:   Univ Sci Technol China
  • 被引频次:   18
  • DOI:   10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b05354
  • 出版年:   2017

▎ 摘  要

Graphene is a promising material for designing next-generation electronic and valleytronic devices, which often demand the opening of a bandgap in the otherwise gapless pristine graphene. To date, several conceptually different mechanisms have been extensively exploited to induce., bandgaps in graphene, including spin-orbit coupling and inversion symmetry breaking for monolayer graphene, and quantum confinement for graphene nanoribbons (GNRs). Here, we present a multiscale study of the competing gap opening mechanisms in a graphene overlayer and GNRs proximity-coupled to topological insulators (TIs). We obtain sizable graphene bandgaps even without inversion symmetry breaking and identify the Kekule lattice distortions caused by the TI substrates to be the dominant gap opening mechanism. Furthermore, Kekule distorted armchair GNRs display intriguing non monotonous gap dependence on the nanoribbon width, resulting from the coexistence of quantum confinement, edge passivation, and Kekule distortions. The present study offers viable new approaches for tunable bandgap engineering in graphene and GNRs.