Graphene zigzag ribbons, square lattice models and quantum spin chains

Abstract

We present an extended study of finite-width zigzag graphene ribbons (ZGRs) based on a tight-binding model with hard-wall boundary conditions. We provide an exact analytic solution that clarifies the origin of the predicted width dependence on the conductance through junctions of ribbons with different widths. An analysis of the obtained solutions suggests a new description of ZGRs in terms of coupled chains. We pursue these ideas further by introducing a mapping between the ZGR model and the Hamiltonian for N-coupled quantum chains as described in terms of 2N Majorana fermions. The proposed mapping preserves the dependence of ribbon properties on its width thus rendering metallic ribbons for N odd and zero-gap semiconductor ribbons for N even. Furthermore, it reveals a close connection between the low-energy properties of the ZGR model and a continuous family of square lattice model Hamiltonians with similar width-dependent properties that includes the $\pi -$flux and the trivial square lattice models. As a further extension, we show that this new description makes it possible to identify various aspects of the physics of graphene ribbons with those predicted by models of quantum spin chains (QSCs).

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Fractional quantum Hall states in lattices: Local models and physical implementation
• Conductance quantization in graphene nanoconstrictions with mesoscopically smooth but atomically stepped boundaries
• Quantum Size Effects in the Atomistic Structure of Armchair-Nanoribbons
• Scanning gate microscopy in graphene nanostructures
• Finite-size effects on the minimal conductivity in graphene with Rashba spin-orbit coupling
• Kondo screening of spin-charge separated fluxons by a helical liquid