Jeil Jung

Capacitance of carbon-based electrical double-layer capacitors

Experimental electrical double-layer capacitances of porous carbon electrodes fall below ideal values, thus limiting the practical energy densities of carbon-based electrical double-layer capacitors. Here we investigate the origin of this behaviour by measuring the electrical double-layer capacitance in one to five-layer graphene. We find that the capacitances are suppressed near neutrality, and are anomalously enhanced for thicknesses below a few layers. We attribute the first effect to quantum capacitance effects near the point of zero charge, and the second to correlations between electrons in the graphene sheet and ions in the electrolyte. The large capacitance values imply gravimetric energy storage densities in the single-layer graphene limit that are comparable to those of batteries. We anticipate that these results shed light on developing new theoretical models in understanding the electrical double-layer capacitance of carbon electrodes, and on opening up new strategies for improving the energy density of carbon-based capacitors.

Ultrathin high-temperature oxidation-resistant coatings of hexagonal boron nitride

Hexagonal boron nitride is a two-dimensional layered material that can be stable at 1,500 °C in air and will not react with most chemicals. Here we demonstrate large-scale, ultrathin, oxidation-resistant coatings of high-quality hexagonal boron nitride layers with controlled thicknesses from double layers to bulk. We show that such ultrathin hexagonal boron nitride films are impervious to oxygen diffusion even at high temperatures and can serve as high-performance oxidation-resistant coatings for nickel up to 1,100 °C in oxidizing atmospheres. Furthermore, graphene layers coated with a few hexagonal boron nitride layers are also protected at similarly high temperatures. These hexagonal boron nitride atomic layer coatings, which can be synthesized via scalable chemical vapour deposition method down to only two layers, could be the thinnest coating ever shown to withstand such extreme environments and find applications as chemically stable high-temperature coatings.

Spontaneous Quantum Hall States in Chirally-stacked Few-Layer Graphene Systems

Chirally stacked N-layer graphene systems with N≥2 exhibit a variety of distinct broken symmetry states in which charge density contributions from different spins and valleys are spontaneously transferred between layers. We explain how these states are distinguished by their charge, spin, and valley Hall conductivities, by their orbital magnetizations, and by their edge state properties. We argue that valley Hall states have [N/2] edge channels per spin valley.

Direct chemical conversion of graphene to boron- and nitrogen- and carbon-containing atomic layers

Graphene and hexagonal boron nitride are typical conductor and insulator, respectively, while their hybrids hexagonal boron carbonitride are promising as a semiconductor. Here we demonstrate a direct chemical conversion reaction, which systematically converts the hexagonal carbon lattice of graphene to boron nitride, making it possible to produce uniform boron nitride and boron carbonitride structures without disrupting the structural integrity of the original graphene templates. We synthesize high-quality atomic layer films with boron-, nitrogen- and carbon-containing atomic layers with full range of compositions. Using this approach, the electrical resistance, carrier mobilities and bandgaps of these atomic layers can be tuned from conductor to semiconductor to insulator. Combining this technique with lithography, local conversion could be realized at the nanometre scale, enabling the fabrication of in-plane atomic layer structures consisting of graphene, boron nitride and boron carbonitride. This is a step towards scalable synthesis of atomically thin two-dimensional integrated circuits.

Transport spectroscopy of symmetry-broken insulating states in bilayer graphene

Bilayer graphene is an attractive platform for studying new two-dimensional electron physics, because its flat energy bands are sensitive to out-of-plane electric fields and these bands magnify electron-electron interaction effects. Theory predicts a variety of interesting broken symmetry states when the electron density is at the carrier neutrality point, and some of these states are characterized by spontaneous mass gaps, which lead to insulating behaviour. These proposed gaps are analogous to the masses generated by broken symmetries in particle physics, and they give rise to large Berry phase effects accompanied by spontaneous quantum Hall effects. Although recent experiments have provided evidence for strong electronic correlations near the charge neutrality point, the presence of gaps remains controversial. Here, we report transport measurements in ultraclean double-gated bilayer graphene and use source-drain bias as a spectroscopic tool to resolve a gap of ∼2 meV at the charge neutrality point. The gap can be closed by a perpendicular electric field of strength ∼15 mV nm(-1), but it increases monotonically with magnetic field, with an apparent particle-hole asymmetry above the gap. These data represent the first spectroscopic mapping of the ground states in bilayer graphene in the presence of both electric and magnetic fields.

Carrier Density and Magnetism in Graphene Zigzag Nanoribbons

Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, USA(Dated: June 26, 2009)The influence of carrier density on magnetism in a zigzag grap hene nanoribbon is studied in a π-orbitalHubbard-model mean-field approximation. Departures from half-filling alter the magnetism, leading to stateswith charge density variation across the ribbon and parallel spin-alignment on opposite edges. Finite carrierdensities cause the spin-density near the edges to decreasesteadily, leading eventually to the absence of mag-netism. At low doping densities the system shows a tendency to multiferroic order in which edge charges andspins are simultaneously polarized.INTRODUCTION

THEORY OF INTEREDGE SUPEREXCHANGE IN ZIGZAG EDGE MAGNETISM

A graphene nanoribbon with zigzag edges has a gapped magnetic ground state with an antiferromagnetic interedge superexchange interaction. We present a theory based on asymptotic properties of the Dirac-model ribbon wave function which predicts W-2 and W-1 ribbon-width dependencies for the superexchange interaction strength and the charge gap, respectively. We find that, unlike the case of conventional atomic-scale superexchange, opposite spin orientations on opposite edges of the ribbon are favored by both kinetic and interaction energies.

Electronic Highways in Bilayer Graphene

Bilayer graphene with an interlayer potential difference has an energy gap and, when the potential difference varies spatially, topologically protected one-dimensional states localized along the differences zero lines. When disorder is absent, electronic travel directions along zero-line trajectories are fixed by valley Hall properties. Using the Landauer-Büttiker formula and the nonequilibrium Greens function technique, we demonstrate numerically that collisions between electrons traveling in opposite directions, due to either disorder or changes in path direction, are strongly suppressed. We find that extremely long mean free paths of the order of hundreds of micrometers can be expected in relatively clean samples. This finding suggests the possibility of designing low power nanoscale electronic devices in which transport paths are controlled by gates which alter the interlayer potential landscape.

Valley-Hall Kink and Edge States in Multilayer Graphene

Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, USA(Dated: May 19, 2011)We report on a theoretical study of one-dimensional (1D) states localized at few-layer graphene system ribbonedges, and at interfaces between few-layer graphene systems with different valley Hall conductivities. These 1Dstates are topologically protected when valley mixing is neglected. We address the influence on their propertiesof stacking arrangement, interface structure, and external electric field perpendicular to the layers. We findthat 1D states are generally absent at multilayer ribbon armchair direction edges, but present irrespective ofcrystallographic orientation at any internal valley-Hallinterface of an ABC stacked multilayer.I. INTRODUCTION

Transport Properties of Graphene Nanoroads in Boron Nitride Sheets

We demonstrate that the one-dimensional (1D) transport channels that appear in the gap when graphene nanoroads are embedded in boron nitride (BN) sheets are more robust when they are inserted at AB/BA grain boundaries. Our conclusions are based on ab initio electronic structure calculations for a variety of different crystal orientations and bonding arrangements at the BN/C interfaces. This property is related to the valley Hall conductivity present in the BN band structure and to the topologically protected kink states that appear in continuum Dirac models with position-dependent masses.