Semimetal-antiferromagnetic insulator transition in graphene induced by biaxial strain

Abstract

We report first-principles calculations on antiferromagnetic spin ordering in graphene under biaxial strain. Using hybrid functional calculations, we found that semimetallic graphene sheets undergo a transition to antiferromagnetic insulators at a biaxial strain of 7.7% and that the band gap rapidly increases after the onset of this transition before reaching 0.9 eV at a biaxial strain of 12%. We examined the competition of the antiferromagnetic spin ordering with two-dimensional Peierls distortions upon biaxial strain, and found that the preceding antiferromagnetic insulator phase impedes the Peierls insulator phase. The antiferromagnetic insulator phase is destabilized upon carrier filling but robust up to moderate carrier densities. This work indicates that biaxially strained graphene represents a noble system where the electron-electron and electron-lattice interactions compete with each other in a simple but nontrivial way.

arXiv comment9 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (27)

• The electronic properties of graphene
• Two-Dimensional Gas of Massless Dirac Fermions in Graphene
• Experimental Observation of Quantum Hall Effect and Berry's Phase in Graphene
• Energy Band Gap Engineering of Graphene Nanoribbons
• Energy Gaps in Graphene Nanoribbons
• Substrate-induced band gap opening in epitaxial graphene
• Energy gaps, topological insulator state and zero-field quantum Hall effect in graphene by strain engineering
• Observation of Electron-Hole Puddles in Graphene Using a Scanning Single Electron Transistor
• A tight-binding approach to uniaxial strain in graphene
• A self-consistent theory for graphene transport
• Emergence of magnetism in graphene materials and nanostructures
• All-graphene integrated circuits via strain engineering
• Effects of Strain on Electronic Properties of Graphene
• Quantum spin-liquid emerging in two-dimensional correlated Dirac fermions
• Graphene Antidot Lattices - Designed Defects and Spin Qubits
• Strength of effective Coulomb interactions in graphene and graphite
• Density-based mixing parameter for hybrid functionals
• Existence and topological stability of Fermi points in multilayered graphene
• VO2: A Novel View from Band Theory
• Failure mechanisms of graphene under tension
• Exchange interactions and magnetic phases of transition metal oxides: benchmarking advanced ab initio methods
• Band gap opening by two-dimensional manifestation of Peierls instability in graphene
• Mind the gap but also the spin: why the Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof hybrid functional description of VO2 phases is not correct
• First-principles Theory of Nonlocal Screening in Graphene
• Hole Localization in Molecular Crystals From Hybrid Density Functional Theory
• Antiferromagnetism of the Hubbard Model on a Layered Honeycomb Lattice - Is MgB${}_2$ a Nearly-Antiferromagnetic Metal? -
• Possible Lattice Distortions in the Hubbard Model for Graphene

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Interaction driven metal-insulator transition in strained graphene
• Correlation-Driven Dimerization and Topological Gap Opening in Isotropically Strained Graphene
• Magnetism and charge order in the honeycomb lattice
• Spontaneous antiferromagnetic order and strain effect on electronic properties of $\alpha$-graphyne
• Monte Carlo simulations of polymers with nearest- and next nearest-neighbor interactions on square and cubic lattices
• Mott transition in the Hubbard model on anisotropic honeycomb lattice with implications for strained graphene: Gutzwiller variational study
• Kekulé valence bond order in the Hubbard model on the honeycomb lattice with possible lattice distortions for graphene
• The extended Hubbard model on a honeycomb lattice