Manipulation of edge states in microwave artificial graphene

Abstract

Edge states are one important ingredient to understand transport properties of graphene nanoribbons. We study experimentally the existence and the internal structure of edge states under uniaxial strain of the three main edges: zigzag, bearded, and armchair. The experiments are performed on artificial microwave graphene flakes, where the wavefunctions are obtained by direct imaging. We show that uniaxial strain can be used to manipulate the edge states: a single parameter controls their existence and their spatial extension into the ribbon. By combining tight-binding approach and topological arguments, we provide an accurate description of our experimental findings. A new type of zero-energy state appearing at the intersection of two edges, namely the corner state, is also observed and discussed.

15 pages, 9 figures

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• The electronic properties of graphene
• Quantum Spin Hall Effect and Topological Phase Transition in HgTe Quantum Wells
• Electronic States of Graphene Nanoribbons
• A tight-binding approach to uniaxial strain in graphene
• Merging of Dirac points in a two-dimensional crystal
• Two-dimensional Mott-Hubbard electrons in an artificial honeycomb lattice
• Dirac-point engineering and topological phase transitions in honeycomb optical lattices
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• Dirac Point and Edge States in a Microwave Realization of Tight-Binding Graphene-like Structures

Cited by in corpus (11)

• Topological Photonics
• The Existence of Topological Edge States in Honeycomb Plasmonic Lattices
• Photonic realization of a generic type of graphene edge states exhibiting topological flat band
• Construction and properties of a topological index for periodically driven time-reversal invariant 2D crystals
• Microwave Experiments Simulating Quantum Search and Directed Transport in Artificial Graphene
• Lattice-layer entanglement in Bernal-stacked bilayer graphene
• Transport gap engineering by contact geometry in graphene nanoribbons: Experimental and theoretical studies on artificial materials
• Coherent control of current injection in zigzag graphene nanoribbons
• Properties of the eigenmodes and quantum-chaotic scattering in a superconducting microwave Dirac billiard with threefold rotational symmetry
• Tunable chiral anomalies and coherent transport on a honeycomb lattice
• Microcavity polaritons for topological photonics