Chiral tunneling through generic one-dimensional potential barriers in bilayer graphene

Victor A. Kleptsyn (1) , A. Okunev (2) , I. Schurov (2) , D. Zubov (3) , M. I. Katsnelson (4, 5)

1 IRMAR - Institut de Recherche Mathématique de Rennes
2 HSE - Vysšaja škola èkonomiki = National Research University Higher School of Economics [Moscow]
3 Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics [Moscow]
4 Radboud University Nijmegen, Institute for Molecules and Materials
5 Department of Theoretical Physics and Applied Mathematics

We study tunneling of charge carriers in single- and bilayer graphene. We propose an explanation for non-zero "magic angles" with 100% transmission for the case of symmetric potential barrier, as well as for their almost-survival for slightly asymmetric barrier in the bilayer graphene known previously from numerical simulations. Most importantly, we demonstrate that these magic angles are not protected in the case of bilayer and give an explicit example of a barrier with very small electron transmission probability for any angles. This means that one can lock charge carriers by a p-n-p (or n-p-n) junction without opening energy gap. This creates new opportunities for the construction of graphene transistors.

Domaines: Physique mathématique [math-ph]

Victor A. Kleptsyn, A. Okunev, I. Schurov, D. Zubov, M. I. Katsnelson. Chiral tunneling through generic one-dimensional potential barriers in bilayer graphene. Physical Review B: Condensed Matter and Materials Physics (1998-2015), 2015, 92 (16), pp.165407. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevB.92.165407⟩. ⟨hal-01218018⟩