Abstract: Using a numerical tight-binding approach based on the Chebyshev–Bogoliubov–de Gennes method we describe Josephson junctions made of multilayer graphene contacted by top superconducting gates. Both Bernal (ABA) and rhombohedral (ABC) stacking are considered and we find that the type of stacking has a strong effect on the proximity effect and the supercurrent flow. For both cases the pair amplitude shows a polarization between dimer and nondimer atoms, being more pronounced for rhombohedral stacking. Even though the proximity effect in nondimer sites is enhanced when compared to single-layer graphene, we find that the supercurrent is suppressed. The spatial distribution of the supercurrent shows that for Bernal stacking the current flows only in the topmost layers while for rhombohedral stacking the current flows throughout the whole structure.

Abstract: The charge density relaxation propagator of a two-dimensional electron system, which is the slope of the imaginary part of the polarization function, exhibits singularities for bosonic momenta having the order of the spin-orbit momentum and depending on the momentum orientation. We have provided an intuitive understanding for this nonanalytic behavior in terms of the interchirality subband electronic transitions, induced by the combined action of Bychkov-Rashba (BR) and Dresselhaus (D) spin-orbit coupling. It is shown that the regular behavior of the relaxation propagator is recovered in the presence of only one BR or D spin-orbit field or for spin-orbit interaction with equal BR and D coupling strengths. This creates a new possibility to influence carrier relaxation properties by means of an applied electric field.

Abstract: The thermodynamic properties of the electron gas in multilayer graphene depend strongly on the number of layers and the type of stacking. Here we analyze how those properties change when we vary the number of layers for rhombohedral stacked multilayer graphene and compare our results with those from a conventional two-dimensional electron gas. We show that the highly degenerate zero-energy Landau level which is partly filled with electrons and partly with holes has a strong influence on the values of the different thermodynamic quantities.

Abstract: We show by extensive numerical simulations, that far-from-equilibrium experiments on dusty plasmas and on dipole particles in a circular cavity are good candidates for the verification of the Jarzynski equality, the Crooks relation and, to a lesser extent, of the recently obtained microscopic expression for the dissipated work.

Abstract: The interaction between electrons and plasmons in trilayer graphene is investigated within the Overhauser approach resulting in the “plasmaron” quasiparticle. This interaction is cast into a field theoretical problem, and its effect on the energy spectrum is calculated using improved Wigner-Brillouin perturbation theory. The plasmaron spectrum is shifted with respect to the bare electron spectrum by ΔE(k)∼150−200meV for ABC stacked trilayer graphene and for ABA trilayer graphene by ΔE(k)∼30−150 meV[ ΔE(k) ∼1 −5meV] for the hyperbolic (linear) part of the spectrum. The shift in general increases with the electron concentration and electron momentum. The dispersion of plasmarons is more pronounced in ABC stacked than in ABA stacked trilayer graphene, because of the different energy band structure and their different plasmon dispersion.

Abstract: The adsorption characteristics of alkali, alkaline-earth, and transition metal adatoms on silicene, a graphene-like monolayer structure of silicon are analyzed by means of first-principles calculations. In contrast to graphene, interaction between the metal atoms and the silicene surface is quite strong due to its highly reactive buckled hexagonal structure. In addition to structural properties, we also calculate the electronic band dispersion, net magnetic moment, charge transfer, work function, and dipole moment of the metal adsorbed silicene sheets. Alkali metals, Li, Na, and K, adsorb to hollow sites without any lattice distortion. As a consequence of the significant charge transfer from alkalis to silicene, metalization of silicene takes place. Trends directly related to atomic size, adsorption height, work function, and dipole moment of the silicene/alkali adatom system are also revealed. We found that the adsorption of alkaline-earth metals on silicene is entirely different from their adsorption on graphene. The adsorption of Be, Mg, and Ca turns silicene into a narrow gap semiconductor. Adsorption characteristics of eight transition metals Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Mo, and W are also investigated. As a result of their partially occupied d orbital, transition metals show diverse structural, electronic, and magnetic properties. Upon the adsorption of transition metals, depending on the adatom type and atomic radius, the system can exhibit metal, half-metal, and semiconducting behavior. For all metal adsorbates, the direction of the charge transfer is from adsorbate to silicene, because of its high surface reactivity. Our results indicate that the reactive crystal structure of silicene provides a rich playground for functionalization at nanoscale. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.87.085423

Abstract: Typical Raman spectra of transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) display two prominent peaks, E-2g and A(1g), that are well separated from each other. We find that these modes are degenerate in bulk WSe2 yielding one single Raman peak in contrast to other TMDs. As the dimensionality is lowered, the observed peak splits in two. In contrast, our ab initio calculations predict that the degeneracy is retained even for WSe2 monolayers. Interestingly, for minuscule biaxial strain, the degeneracy is preserved, but once the crystal symmetry is broken by a small uniaxial strain, the degeneracy is lifted. Our calculated phonon dispersion for uniaxially strained WSe2 shows a good match to the measured Raman spectrum, which suggests that uniaxial strain exists in WSe2 flakes, possibly induced during the sample preparation and/or as a result of the interaction between WSe2 and the substrate. Furthermore, we find that WSe2 undergoes an indirect-to-direct band-gap transition from bulk to monolayers, which is ubiquitous for semiconducting TMDs. These results not only allow us to understand the vibrational and electronic properties of WSe2, but also point to effects of the interaction between the monolayer TMDs and the substrate on the vibrational and electronic properties. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.87.165409

Abstract: The Green function approach to the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory of superconductivity is used to study nanofilms. We go beyond previous models and include effects of confinement on the strength of the electron-phonon coupling as well as on the electronic spectrum and on the phonon modes. Within our approach, we find that in ultrathin films, confinement effects on the electronic screening become very important. Indeed, contrary to what has been advanced in recent years, the sudden increases of the density of states when new bands start to be occupied as the film thickness increases, tend to suppress the critical temperature rather than to enhance it. On the other hand, the increase of the number of phonon modes with increasing number of monolayers in the film leads to an increase in the critical temperature. As a consequence, the superconducting critical parameters in such nanofilms are determined by these two competing effects. Furthermore, in sufficiently thin films, the condensate consists of well-defined subcondensates associated with the occupied bands, each with a distinct coherence length. The subcondensates can interfere constructively or destructively giving rise to an interference pattern in the Cooper pair probability density.

Abstract: Using the Ginzburg-Landau (GL) theory, we calculate the stability of sample symmetry-induced vortex-antivortex molecules in a mesoscopic superconducting bilayer exposed to a homogeneous magnetic field. We demonstrate the conditions under which the two condensates cooperatively broaden the field-temperature stability range of the composite (joint) vortex-antivortex state. In cases when such broadening is not achieved, a reentrance of the vortex-antivortex state is found at lower temperatures. In a large portion of the phase diagram noncomposite states are possible, in which the antivortex is present in only one of the layers. In this case, we demonstrate that the vortex-antivortex molecule in one of the layers can be pinned and enlarged by interaction with a vortex molecule in the other. Using analogies in the respective GL formalisms, we map our findings for the bilayer onto mesoscopic two-band superconductors.

Abstract: ZnAl2O4 (gahnite) is a ceramic which is considered a possible transparent conducting oxide (TCO) due to its wide band gap and transparency for UV. Defects play an important role in controlling the conductivity of a TCO material along with the dopant, which is the main source of conductivity in an otherwise insulating oxide. A comprehensive first-principles density functional theory study for point defects in ZnAl2O4 spinel is presented using the Heyd, Scuseria, and Ernzerhof hybrid functional (HSE06) to overcome the band gap problem. We have investigated the formation energies of intrinsic defects which include the Zn, Al, and O vacancy and the antisite defects: Zn at the Al site (ZnAl) and Al at the Zn site (AlZn). The antisite defect AlZn has the lowest formation energy and acts as a shallow donor, indicating possible n-type conductivity in ZnAl2O4 spinel by Al doping.

Abstract: We consider a junction between two topological insulators and calculate the properties of the interface states with an effective low-energy Hamiltonian for topological insulators with a single cone on the surface. This system bears a close resemblance to bilayer graphene, as both result from the hybridization of Dirac cones. We find gapless interface states not only when the helicity directions of the topological surface states are oppositely oriented, but they can also exist if they are equally oriented. Furthermore, we find that the existence of the interface states can be understood from the closing of the bulk gap when the helicity changes orientation. Recently superluminal tachyonic excitations were also claimed to exist at the interface between topological insulators. However, here we show that these interface states do not exist. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.87.115113

Abstract: Density-functional tight-binding and classical molecular dynamics simulations are used to investigate the structural deformations and melting of planar carbon nanoclusters C-N with N = 2-55. The minimum-energy configurations for different clusters are used as starting configurations for the study of the temperature effects on the bond breaking and rotation in carbon lines (N < 6), carbon rings (5 < N < 19), and graphene nanoflakes. The larger the rings (graphene nanoflakes) the higher the transition temperature (melting point) with ring-to-line (perfect-to-defective) transition structures. The melting point was obtained by using the bond energy, the Lindemann criteria, and the specific heat. We found that hydrogen-passivated graphene nanoflakes (CNHM) have a larger melting temperature with a much smaller dependence on size. The edges in the graphene nanoflakes exhibit several different metastable configurations (isomers) during heating before melting occurs. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.87.134103

Abstract: Motivated by recent experimental observations of Tongay et al. [Nano Lett. 12, 5576 (2012)] we show how the electronic properties and Raman characteristics of single layer MoSe2 are affected by elastic biaxial strain. We found that with increasing strain: (1) the E' and E '' Raman peaks (E-2g and E-1g in bulk) exhibit significant redshifts (up to similar to 30 cm(-1)), (2) the position of the A'(1) peak remains at similar to 180 cm(-1) (A(1g) in bulk) and does not change considerably with further strain, (3) the dispersion of low energy flexural phonons crosses over from quadratic to linear, and (4) the electronic band structure undergoes a direct to indirect band gap crossover under similar to 3% biaxial tensile strain. Thus the application of strain appears to be a promising approach for a rapid and reversible tuning of the electronic, vibrational, and optical properties of single layer MoSe2 and similar MX2 dichalcogenides. DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.87.125415

Abstract: We study Dirac plasmons and their damping in spatially separated N-layer graphene structures at finite doping and temperatures. The plasmon spectrum consists of one optical excitation with square-root dispersion and N – 1 acoustical excitations with linear dispersion, which are undamped at zero temperature and finite doping within a triangular energy region outside the electron-hole continuum. In the long-wavelength limit the energy and weight of the optical plasmon modes increase, respectively, as the square root and linearly with N in agreement with recent experimental findings. The energy and weight of the upper-lying acoustical branches also increase with N. This increase is strongest for the uppermost acoustical mode, and we find that its energy can exceed at some value of momentum the plasmon energy in an individual graphene sheet. Meanwhile, the energy of the low-lying acoustical branches decreases weakly with N as compared with the single acoustical mode in double-layer graphene structures. Our numerical calculations provide a detailed understanding of the overall behavior of the wave-vector dependence of the optical and acoustical multilayer plasmon modes and show how their dispersion and damping are modified as a function of temperature, interlayer spacing, and inlayer carrier density in (un)balanced graphene multilayer structures. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.87.085401