Caterina Cocchi

Electronics and Optics of Graphene Nanoflakes: Edge Functionalization and Structural Distortions

The effects of edge covalent functionalization on the structural, electronic, and optical properties of elongated armchair graphene nanoflakes (AGNFs) are analyzed in detail for a wide range of terminations, within the framework of Hartree–Fock-based semiempirical methods. The chemical features of the functional groups, their distribution, and the resulting system symmetry are identified as the key factors that determine the modification of strutural and optoelectronic features. While the electronic gap is always reduced in the presence of substituents, functionalization-induced distortions contribute to the observed lowering by about 35–55%. This effect is paired with a red shift of the first optical peak, corresponding to about 75% of the total optical gap reduction. Further, the functionalization pattern and the specific features of the edge–substituent bond are found to influence the strength and the character of the low-energy excitations. All of these effects are discussed for flakes of different wi...

Optical Properties and Charge-Transfer Excitations in Edge-Functionalized All-Graphene Nanojunctions

We investigate the optical properties of edge-functionalized graphene nanosystems, focusing on the formation of junctions and charge-transfer excitons. We consider a class of graphene structures that combine the main electronic features of graphene with the wide tunability of large polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. By investigating prototypical ribbon-like systems, we show that, upon convenient choice of functional groups, low-energy excitations with remarkable charge-transfer character and large oscillator strength are obtained. These properties can be further modulated through an appropriate width variation, thus spanning a wide range in the low-energy region of the UV-vis spectra. Our results are relevant in view of designing all-graphene optoelectronic nanodevices, which take advantage of the versatility of molecular functionalization, together with the stability and the electronic properties of graphene nanostructures.

Optical Excitations and Field Enhancement in Short Graphene Nanoribbons

The optical excitations of elongated graphene nanoflakes of finite length are investigated theoretically through quantum chemistry semiempirical approaches. The spectra and the resulting dipole fields are analyzed, accounting in full atomistic details for quantum confinement effects, which are crucial in the nanoscale regime. We find that the optical spectra of these nanostructures are dominated at low energy by excitations with strong intensity, comprised of characteristic coherent combinations of a few single-particle transitions with comparable weight. They give rise to stationary collective oscillations of the photoexcited carrier density extending throughout the flake and to a strong dipole and field enhancement. This behavior is robust with respect to width and length variations, thus ensuring tunability in a large frequency range. The implications for nanoantennas and other nanoplasmonic applications are discussed for realistic geometries.

Designing All-Graphene Nanojunctions by Covalent Functionalization

We investigated theoretically the effect of covalent edge functionalization, with organic functional groups, on the electronic properties of graphene nanostructures and nanojunctions. Our analysis shows that functionalization can be designed to tune electron affinities and ionization potentials of graphene flakes, and to control the energy alignment of frontier orbitals in nanometer-wide graphene junctions. The stability of the proposed mechanism is discussed with respect to the functional groups, their number as well as the width of graphene nanostructures. The results of our work indicate that different level alignments can be obtained and engineered in order to realize stable all-graphene nanodevices.

Spin-transport selectivity upon Co adsorption on antiferromagnetic graphene nanoribbons.

We investigate from first principles the electronic and transport properties of zigzag graphene nanoribbons in the presence of Co adatoms. Comparing different adsorption sites across the width, we find that the Co-C coupling is rather sensitive to the local environment. While a net spin polarization appears in all cases, the spin filtering effect is significantly enhanced when the Co adatom is at the edge, where the adsorption energy is maximized and a partial suppression of edge-associated transport channels occurs. We also probe the magnetic interaction in the nonbonding regime, for Co-graphene nanoribbon (GNR) distances ranging from adsorption to π-π typical configurations. Our results indicate that Co-GNR coupling is still appreciable in an intermediate range, whereas it becomes vanishingly small in the limit of π-π distances.

Ab initio simulation of optical limiting: the case of metal-free phthalocyanine.

We present a fully ab initio, nonperturbative description of the optical limiting properties of a metal-free phthalocyanine by simulating the effects of a broadband electric field of increasing intensity. The results confirm reverse saturable absorption as the leading mechanism for optical limiting phenomena in this system and reveal that a number of dipole-forbidden excitations are populated by excited-state absorption at more intense external fields. The excellent agreement with the experimental data supports our approach as a powerful tool to predict optical limiting in view of applications.

Optical spectra from molecules to crystals: Insight from many-body perturbation theory

Time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT) often successfully reproduces excitation energies of finite systems, already in the adiabatic local-density approximation (ALDA). Here we show for prototypical molecular materials, i.e., oligothiophenes, that ALDA largely fails and explain why this is so. By comparing TDDFT with an in-depth analysis based on many-body perturbation theory, we demonstrate that correlation effects crucially impact energies and character of the optical excitations not only for molecules of increasing length and in crystalline environment, but even for isolated small molecules. We argue that only high-level methodologies, which explicitly include correlation effects, can reproduce optical spectra of molecular materials with equal accuracy from gas phase to crystal structures.

Bound excitons and many-body effects in x-ray absorption spectra of azobenzene-functionalized self-assembled monolayers

We study x-ray absorption spectra of azobenzene-functionalized self-assembled monolayers (SAMs), investigating excitations from the nitrogen K edge. Azobenzene with H-termination and functionalized with CF3 groups is considered. The Bethe-Salpeter equation is employed to compute the spectra, including excitonic effects, and to determine the character of the near-edge resonances. Our results indicate that core-edge excitations are intense and strongly bound: Their binding energies range from about 6 to 4 eV, going from isolated molecules to densely-packed SAMs. Electron-hole correlation rules these excitations, while the exchange interaction plays a negligible role.

Anisotropy and Size Effects on the Optical Spectra of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

The electronic and optical properties of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) present a strong dependence on their size and geometry. We tackle this issue by analyzing the spectral features of two prototypical classes of PAHs, belonging to D6h and D2h symmetry point groups and related to coronene as multifunctional seed. While the size variation induces an overall red shift of the spectra and a redistribution of the oscillator strength between the main peaks, a lower molecular symmetry is responsible for the appearance of new optical features. Along with broken molecular orbital degeneracies, optical peaks split and dark states are activated in the low-energy part of the spectrum. Supported by a systematic analysis of the composition and the character of the optical transitions, our results contribute in shedding light to the mechanisms responsible for spectral modifications in the visible and near UV absorption bands of medium-size PAHs.

Enhanced Light–Matter Interaction in Graphene/h-BN van der Waals Heterostructures

By investigating the optoelectronic properties of prototypical graphene/hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) heterostructures, we demonstrate how a nanostructured combination of these materials can lead to a dramatic enhancement of light-matter interaction and give rise to unique excitations. In the framework of ab initio many-body perturbation theory, we show that such heterostructures absorb light over a broad frequency range, from the near-infrared to the ultraviolet (UV), and that each spectral region is characterized by a specific type of excitations. Delocalized electron-hole pairs in graphene dominate the low-energy part of the spectrum, while strongly bound electron-hole pairs in h-BN are preserved in the near-UV. Besides these features, characteristic of the pristine constituents, charge-transfer excitations appear across the visible region. Remarkably, the spatial distribution of the electron and the hole can be selectively tuned by modulating the stacking arrangement of the individual building blocks. Our results open up unprecedented perspectives in view of designing van der Waals heterostructures with tailored optoelectronic features.